NEW DELHI, June 24: Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar is coming to New Delhi with an open and positive mind to kick-start the Kashmir talks with India at the weekend, Pakistan's High Commissioner to India Aziz Ahmed Khan said on Thursday.
While the June 27-28 meeting between Mr Khokhar and his Indian counterpart Shashank would seem to stem from the January statement the two countries had issued in Islamabad, they could draw from the roadmap given by President Gen Pervez Musharraf, Mr Khan told the NDTV news channel. There were inputs from Track II discussions as well to guide the talks, he said.
Asked if the two countries could benefit more from a political-level dialogue instead of leaving the crucial talks to their officials, Mr Khan said any move to upgrade the talks would be initiated only after the foreign ministers carried out a review of the ongoing composite dialogue in August.
He allayed Indian fears that Mr Khokhar, a former envoy to New Delhi, was a hardliner and a hawk on Kashmir, saying: "He (Khokhar) has more friends in New Delhi than I could ever think of having. I wish I had as many friends."
Mr Khokhar is committed to Pakistan's approach to the Kashmir issue, which is to resolve it peacefully to the satisfaction of India, Pakistan and the people of Kashmir, the high commissioner said.
He said there was no reason for him to believe that the new Indian government was not committed to a peaceful resolution of all issues with Pakistan. While Pakistan believes that the atmosphere is now right for some real progress, including the opening of the road between Srinagar and Muzaffarbad, New Delhi's attempts to reach out to the Hurriyat conference remains an area of contention.
