NEW DELHI, March 31: Pakistan Muslim League president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain said on Thursday that time had come for India and Pakistan to jointly fight terrorists who could be seeking to subvert the peace moves under way between the two countries. In a free-wheeling discussion with journalists from both countries on the fourth day of his visit here, Mr Hussain prescribed a similar approach for joint action in other crucial areas of bilateral interest, including the gas pipeline project to link Iran with India via Pakistan.

Chaudhry Shujaat was asked by an Indian journalist whether, in the wake of threats by Kashmiri militants to the trans-LOC bus, Pakistan and India should join hands to thwart them.

“Why should there be any doubt at all that this would be very good for both countries? Of course they should come together to combat the common threat they face. This is exactly what we need,” Mr Hussain said.

India has so far turned down Pakistan’s occasional requests to share data in a number of incidents it has blamed on Islamabad, including an attack on the India parliament in December 2001 that led to a year-long military standoff between the two.

However, with increased cooperation required even for cricket matches to be held safely not to speak of political leaders visiting each other, a new impetus has been given to intelligence sharing. Officials on both sides say privately that the success of the bus service in Kashmir will be heavily predicated on cooperation against the kind of threats that will continue to exist for some time to come.

Chaudhry Shujaat was vocal about a similar joining of hands on the pipeline project and other issues, which he thought was the best way to keep elements like US interference at bay.

“There is an Indian proposal to have a joint Indian-Pakistani cricket team. Indeed such a team would be invincible. But with this kind of coming together we can overcome any resistance to our projects from anyone, no matter how mighty they are.”

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had recently asked India and Pakistan to reconsider doing business with Iran.

Chaudhry Shujaat welcomed the new bonhomie between the two countries and pleaded that India should take President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s offer to sincerely search for peace as a historic opportunity that should not be squandered.

He did not see any good reason why the current thaw should not become irreversible. He said all major political parties in India and Pakistan were today supporting the peace process. He said Indian opposition leader Lal Kishan Advani was likely to visit Pakistan with his family in June. Mr Advani will visit his home in Karachi.