ISLAMABAD, July 24: Briefing the special committee of parliament on Kashmir, which met here on Monday with MNA Hamid Nasir Chatta in the chair, Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri said Pakistan and India would continue to remain engaged in finding a just and final settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir issue. He said he hoped the process of composite dialogue would be resumed soon.
The foreign minister spoke about developments in Pakistan-India relations with particular reference to the Jammu and Kashmir dispute and the status of ties in the wake of Mumbai blasts.
Mr Kasuri also answered questions asked by members of the committee on the current situation in the Middle East and Afghanistan.
The members expressed their anguish over what they called baseless charges levelled against Pakistan by India after the tragic terrorist incident in Mumbai.
They regretted the Indian decision to postpone talks, and hoped that the peace process would resume soon.
Mr Chatta said there was no link between terrorist acts and the peace process.
Expressing solidarity with the people of Kashmir, Mr Chatta said a just settlement of the Kashmir issue acceptable to all parties, mainly the people of Kashmir, was imperative.
Leader of the House in the Senate Waseem Sajjad, Minister for Defence Rao Sikandar Iqbal, Minister for Kashmir Affairs Major (retired) Tahir Iqbal, Minister of State for Environment Malik Amin Aslam and MPs Liaquat Baloch, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Raja Nadir Pervaiz Khan, Amjad Ali Warraich, Rana Omer Nazir, Maulana Gul Naseeb, Dr Noorjehan Panezai, Haji Gul Mohammad Dummar, Shah Abdul Aziz and Sardar Talib Nakai also attended the meeting.
Reuters adds: Indian and Pakistani officials plan to hold discussions in Bangladesh next week, the first meeting between the two sides after New Delhi put off peace talks over the Mumbai bomb blasts, an Indian official said in New Delhi on Monday.
The talks between Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran and his Pakistani counterpart Riaz Mohammad Khan would be held on the sidelines of a South Asian conference, the foreign ministry official said.
The talks were expected to be followed by a meeting between the Pakistani foreign minister and India’s junior foreign minister, he said. The meetings are expected to be held between July 31 and Aug 2, he added.
