NEW DELHI, Dec 6: President Pervez Musharraf has said that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should try to make "some breakthrough if not a big breakthrough" when he makes his proposed visit to Pakistan next year.
"I rate him high. I respect him. He is a good man. He is a sincereman. He wants peace and I rate him high," Gen Musharraf said in an interview with NDTV excerpts of which are to be shown on Thursday.
A visiting delegation of Pakistani parliamentarians who met Dr Singh on Wednesday quoted him as saying he was confident he could "do business with President Musharraf."
MQM's parliamentary leader Dr Farooq Sattar told Dawn the comments were made independent of Gen Musharraf's four-point proposal for an interim solution to the Kashmir dispute.
"But the prime minister was forthcoming, reached out to us, amenable to our heartfelt sentiments," Dr Sattar said. "He is himself was not very happy with the pace of the dialogue process. He feels we have to go a long a way and to do a lot more."
Dr Singh was quoted as hinging high hopes on the joint anti-terror mechanism set up between the two countries. He told the Pakistani delegation that India and Pakistan could emulate the European Union by coming closer into a bloc because "we have a common destiny and common goals."
Gen Musharraf said about Mr Singh’s visit: "I would like him to come tomorrow... But with a provision which he also agrees, may I say! What is the use of visits if you don't make it substantive?”
