LAHORE, May 4: Former foreign minister Sardar Assef Ahmad Ali on Friday pleaded for a full-scale trade relationship with India saying that “the national interest should not be made hostage to the Kashmir issue”.

Speaking at the launching ceremony of book, Partition and Convergence, by Prof Syed Jamal Naqvi, he said promotion of ties with India in every field, particularly trade and commerce, was in the best national interest and also the entire south Asia.

He said goods coming from India would cost the people much lower than those imported from other countries.

He said the countries in south Asia must rise above ‘petty’ issue to address to the biggest question of poverty in a situation where the market economy was growing and capital was expanding the world over. All the economic blocs around the world had done wonders in the field of development except the eight-nation Saarc whose member states were engaged in meaningless issues at the cost of the welfare of their masses.

He was of the view that the Saarc governments, particularly India and Pakistan, should redefine their priorities in addressing issues failing which they would be reduced to political and geographical non-entities.

Mr Ali said all issues, including Kashmir, would be resolved once trade relations in the region improved and the people-to-people contacts reached a desirable level.

Improved relations in south Asia would also rid the people of Pakistan of around 90 per cent national resources going to the defence budget and debt retirement and leaving peanuts for education, health, safe drinking water and development in other areas of life, he added.

He said in a situation where generals had usurped the constitutional rights of the people, the NWFP was under the control of Taliban, military operation was in progress in Balochistan and the country was facing threats to its sovereignty from all around, the improvement in relationship within the Saarc region assumed a high importance.

Commenting on the book, Prof Mubarak Ali said it had exposed the official and textbook version of the division of the subcontinent and established beyond doubt that the partition had failed to achieve the results which were trumpeted around six decades ago.

He was of the view that religion had not proved to be basis of the partition and the way the national resources were usurped by feudal lords, the military rulers and their agents in civilian garb, spoke ample of the fact that the division of subcontinent had not been in favour of the people of Pakistan and India.