24 April 2004	Saturday	03 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

ISLAMABAD, April 23: Former ambassadors and intellectuals from India and Pakistan here on Friday called for peaceful coexistence and cooperation between neighbouring countries.

They emphasized the role of politicians in shaping the foreign policies and in dialogues on contentious issues. The also stressed the need for a cautious approach towards the composite dialogue between India and Pakistan, scheduled in May, to make it sustainable.

Pakistan's former high commissioner and foreign secretary Dr Humayun Khan, while speaking at the launch of Diplomatic Divide at the National Library auditorium, said he was hopeful of the outcome of the composite dialogue, but it must be approached with the spirit of making it sustainable.

"Impatience on any side would wreck the process," he observed. The book Diplomatic Divide has been published simultaneously in Pakistan and India. In Pakistan the Oxford University Press has published the book.

It is the first volume in a series of Cross-Border Talks dealing with the issue of composite dialogue which has created interest and would be followed by other books on more substantive matters, such as the nuclear issue, the fundamental differences, economics and the conflicts that fuel bitterness and distrust between the two countries.

The first volume of the book has been written by Dr Humayun Khan and former Indian high commissioner G. Parthasarathy. Renowned writer David Page is the editor of the series.

Dr Khan said, "we have an atmosphere of hope on both sides, particularly because the Indian Prime Minister had made friendship with Pakistan a part of his election campaign and no party in India was opposing it".

We should proceed with dialogue to get a final understanding of problems which had bedevilled relations between the two countries, he stressed. "The interest of Pakistan would be served in having a stable and friendly relations with its neighbour," Dr Khan said, adding, it was the right time to launch the book.

The interest in the coming composite dialogue remained high on both sides. The former Indian high commissioner to Pakistan G. Parthasarathy believed that India and Pakistan have to live with peaceful coexistence and cooperation as neighbours though the path ahead was not going to be easy and contentious issues had to be resolved in a political climate free from violence.

Mr Parthasarathy said that India had recognized Pakistan as a neighbour and Mr Vajapyee by visiting the Minar-i-Pakistan at Lahore had made this statement which should be well understood. India had enough problem of its own and would not wish to another problems by seeking the land of Pakistan.'

The Pro-vice chancellor of Dr Zakir Hussain University Dr Mushirul Hasan, who has been associated with writing the first volume, said he believed that historical and societal differences exist between the two countries but now both India and Pakistan should work in a spirit of unanimity and within the framework of civilizational unity.

There were apprehensions and doubts on both sides but they could be removed within the idea of living together separately. HRCP director I. A. Rahman, commenting on the book, said there were no two countries which were so different as were Pakistan and India. He said there were no lack of texts such as Liaquat-Nehru Pact, the Simla Declaration, the Lahore Declaration which lay down ground for solving differences but the diplomats of the two countries do not care to read the protocols they sign.

He said the diplomats of the two countries should now sign a pact on not beating each other. It was a very uncivilized way of dealing with each other's diplomats and the reason is because the countries did not care about what the people were saying about them.

Author and columnist Dr Ayesha Siddiqua said national policy in both countries were not within the purview of politicians. These policies were clearly dominated by military personnel and there was no effort what so ever to understand each other.

The representative of Indian publisher, Roli Books, Pramod Kapoor, said the idea of the book grew at a time when tensions between the two countries were at their highest but believed that time would pass with the start of dialogue process.

The senior editor of the series, David Page, said his idea was to launch the books simultaneously in Pakistan and India and that had happened. He said the book contained an idea which was waiting to happen.

It may be recalled that forty years ago an eminent historian, V.H. Hudson, published an epic book The Great Divide which dealt with the momentous problems of the division of the South Asian subcontinent into two sovereign dominions.

Now, we have another with a familiar name, dealing with another variety of equally gigantic issue of bridging the current differences between Pakistan and India in the hope that the two countries would sit together and look at their problems in a serious manner with a view to overcoming them.