May 1, 2006	Monday	Rabi-us-Sani 2, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, April 30: Foreign Minister Khurshid M. Kasuri on Sunday said that although there had been a spate of confidence building measures between India and Pakistan, the process of conflict resolution had remained stagnant. “Prominent among the CBMs are opening of rail and road links and Line of Control at five points after last year’s earthquake, prior information about missile tests and setting up of hotline between the two countries. At the same time, bilateral trade between India and Pakistan is growing,” the minister said.

Speaking at the concluding session of the two-day Safma-Sapana South Asian Journalist Conference on ‘Envisioning South Asia,’ he expressed the hope that the third round of the composite dialogue would be result-oriented and meaningful.

President Musharraf, he said, believed in amicable settlement of the outstanding disputes between the two countries, including Kashmir.

He regretted that President Musharraf’s proposals for demilitarisation and self-governance in Kashmir had not received a positive response from India.

He reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to peace and said it was inevitable for an improvement in living conditions of over 1.4 billion people living in South Asia.

“Most of the South Asian countries are at lower rungs of the Human Development Index,” he said.

Mr Kasuri said lists of those people who could travel in South Asian countries without visa had been exchanged. They included parliamentarians, judges, veteran citizens and some accredited journalists.

He reiterated the government’s stance on Iran’s nuclear issue, saying Pakistan would like to see a peaceful solution of the problem.

He cautioned that an attack on Iran would prove to be a setback for the moderate forces and act as a catalyst for extremism in Islamic countries.