ISLAMABAD, March 27: Pakistan on Monday expressed optimism that Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s offer of a ‘friendship treaty’ would give impetus to the sluggish peace process between the two countries.

“The Indian prime minister’s speech encourages us to believe that the peace process will be strengthened and enter a new important phase,” Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam said at a weekly news briefing while giving a detailed reaction to Dr Singh’s speech of Friday.

Reading out a statement, the spokesperson said: “Eventually the peace process must lead to the resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, which would usher in an era of good neighbourly relations between the two countries. That environment would also be conducive to the conclusion of a treaty of friendship.”

Pointing to the fact that ideas of a non-aggression pact or a friendship treaty suggested by the two sides in the past had not materialized, she stated: “The fact remains that distrust caused by persistence of problems and disputes has prevented these ideas from becoming a reality. This further underscores the need for a meaningful dialogue to address problems, especially the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.”

She asserted that progress towards the settlement of the dispute with improved environment through interaction among Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control would greatly help the process of normalization of relations between the two countries.

Responding to a question about Dr Singh’s peace offer, the spokesperson said: “There are many positive elements and we do hope that this would give impetus to the composite dialogue.”

She maintained that apart from the “general cordial sentiments” there were a number of “positive and important elements” in the Indian prime minister’s speech.

She referred to his statement about finding pragmatic solutions to the problem and his suggestion that the two countries could work towards making the LoC irrelevant.

She said President Pervez Musharraf had stated on a number of occasions that status quo could not be a solution and proposed that the LoC be made irrelevant for Kashmiris.

On Dr Singh’s call for freer movement and trade across the LoC, the spokesperson said both the president and the prime minister had emphasised that time had come for the two countries to have focused and meaningful discussions for a settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.

“The president has offered ideas of self-governance, demilitarization and joint management, which have found resonance among Kashmiris on both sides of the LoC,” Ms Aslam said.

“We also believe that Kashmiris should be involved with the peace process. Their intensified interaction with the governments of Pakistan and India is a welcome development,” she said.

In reply to a question, she said: “We don’t have any elements of what the Indian government has in mind as far as the treaty of friendship, peace and security is concerned.”

She recounted that in June 1982 Pakistan had proposed a ‘Non-aggression pact’ to India and in response Delhi in August 1982 offered a ‘Treaty of friendship and cooperation’. She said the ideas were discussed and efforts made to merge them but it did not materialize.

Recalling that it was President Musharraf’s initiative to open five points across the LoC after the October 8 earthquake, she said while the agreement in principle existed, the points had not yet become operational.

Stating that Pakistan favoured simplification of procedures for freer movement of Kashmiris across the LoC, she said: “We hope that the Indian prime minister’s public endorsement that people on both sides of the LoC should be able to move freely and trade will lead to immediate activation of five points.”

In reply to a question, Ms Aslam said there had only been some crossings within the first month of the earthquake by those individuals who had already been cleared for the Muzzafarabad-Srinagar bus service.

The list submitted to the held Kashmir authorities for the five points had not been cleared, she said.

When her attention was drawn to the Indian prime minister’s talk about de-linking of the Kashmir issue, she said it would be unrealistic to expect that the two countries could move forward putting the Jammu and Kashmir issue on the backburner. “If de-linking were to work and could lead to better relations between Pakistan and India it would have happened in the last 59 years,” she said.

She disagreed with the suggestion that Pakistan had moved away from its position on the United Nations resolutions on Kashmir.

She maintained that the talk about involvement of Kashmiris in the dialogue and a solution to the problem that was acceptable to all the stakeholders reflected the basic spirit of the resolutions.

SIACHEN & SIR CREEK: Answering a question, the spokesperson said the Indian premier’s reference to the possibility of an agreement on Siachen, Sir Creek and Baglihar issues had led to a flurry of speculations, most of them figments of ‘fertile’ imagination.