ISLAMABAD, June 29: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said on Thursday that Pakistan was committed to normalising relations with India through the ongoing composite dialogue process.

He also said that proposals for demilitarisation and self-governance could form the basis for a settlement of the Kashmir issue.

Mr Aziz was talking to a delegation of British parliamentarians, which had called on him at the Prime Minister’s House. The delegation is headed by Liberal Democrat MP Malcolm Bruce, who heads the House of Commons’ International Development Select Committee.

The delegation includes John Barrett, John Battle, John Bereow, Richard Burden, Quentin Davis, Ann Mckechin and Marsha Singh.

The prime minister said: “Both India and Pakistan need to show courage, statesmanship, magnanimity and the will to resolve the outstanding dispute of Kashmir.”

He said peace in South Asia would remain elusive without a just settlement of the core dispute in line with the wishes and aspirations of the people of Kashmir.

He said that the gap between various faiths was widening, and stressed the need for promoting interfaith harmony.

The prime minister said Islam is a religion of peace and preaches tolerance, interfaith harmony and compassion. He said that the widening gulf between various faiths needed to be bridged through dedicated efforts of religious scholars, leaders and people belonging to all faiths religious groups.

About Afghanistan, he said that Pakistan was supporting reconstruction and peace efforts in that country. A strong, stable and vibrant Afghanistan was as much in Pakistan’s interest as it was for the Afghans, he added.

The events in Afghanistan had a spillover affect on Pakistan, he said. “We will continue to extend our support to Afghanistan in order to maintain regional stability.”

He said the volume of trade between the two countries had gone up to $1.5 billion and a stable Afghanistan would further spur trade between the two countries.

He said the world needed to do more to help reconstruction activities in Afghanistan and eradicate poppy cultivation through crop substitution and employment generation.

Giving an overview of Pakistan’s economic situation, the prime minister said the government was acting on an agenda of growth with dignity and equity.

He said Pakistan had emerged out of a low investment, low growth syndrome. It achieved 6.6 per cent growth last year, despite the shocks caused by surging oil prices and the devastating earthquake.

He claimed that the total size of the economy, at $135 billion, had doubled over the past seven years, per capita income had risen to $847 and poverty had come down from 34.46 per cent in 2001 to 23.9 per cent in 2006. Social indicators were also moving up.

He asserted that the health, education and women empowerment were the three main areas of focus and the government, through a series of affirmative actions was working on increasing the participation of women in all spheres of life to ensure their economic, political and social empowerment for them.

Mr Bruce discussed UN reforms with Mr Aziz and appreciated the role which he was playing in the reforms process. He said his vision would contribute to making the UN a more coherent organisation.