03 December 2004	Friday	20 Shawwal 1425

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ISLAMABAD, Dec 2: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has said Pakistan is a peace-loving country and it wants to resolve all contentious issues with India through dialogue.

The prime minister was talking to an Indian parliamentary delegation led by the former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, Chandrababu Naidu, which called on him at the Prime Minister's House here on Thursday.

Mr Aziz said the process of Pakistan-India composite dialogue covering all issues, including Kashmir, was satisfactorily heading forward and Islamabad hoped and desired an early and positive breakthrough.

He said Pakistan wanted a solution to the Kashmir dispute which was in accordance with the wishes and aspirations of the people of Kashmir. Welcoming the Indian delegation's goodwill visit, the prime minister said: "It is our earnest desire that the people-to-people contacts between Pakistan and India should grow so that South Asia could be put on a road to progress and prosperity."

He said the objective of people's prosperity and development, to give both the countries a prestigious status in the era of globalization, was possible only when they came out to settle their problems through peaceful means.

He said as chairman of the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (Saarc) it was his desire and effort to make it a proactive and effective organization through the enhancement of mutual contacts between South Asian countries for the purpose of economic development.

The prime minister claimed the country had been put on the road to progress as the economic reforms introduced in the last five years were showing results with the GDP growth rate at 6.4 per cent. Next year's target, he added, was put at 6.6 per cent.

He said the process of transferring overall economic growth to the people was the target of the government, which was focussing its energies on provision of clean drinking water, basic health facilities, education and other social services besides streamlining of policing and judicial system.

He particularly mentioned the robust progress that Pakistan had achieved over the years in the field of Information Technology to provide more jobs to youth and enhance country's exports.

Mr Naidu appreciated Pakistan's economic growth and facilitated the prime minister on his successful visit to India. The premier acknowledged the extraordinary progress of Andhra Pardesh in the fields of biotechnology and IT, resulting in the overall development of the state.