May 16, 2007	Wednesday	Rabi-us-Sani 28, 1428

PESHAWAR, May 15: Former High Commissioner of Pakistan to India, Dr Humayun Khan, has said that the India-Pakistan bilateral dialogue has entered the third stage and the final round in this regard will be held in August.He was speaking at an international seminar “Pakistan’s Bilateral Economic Relations with India and Afghanistan” organised by the Department of International Relations of the University of Peshawar in collaboration with the Hanns Seidal Foundation here on Tuesday.

Dr Humayun Khan said that the process of composite dialogue between India and Pakistan initiated three years back was irreversible as it had made substantive advances.

Sharing his viewpoint on ‘Economic Relations and its Impact on Resolution of Longstanding Disputes’, he said that the people-to-people contact, initiation of bus service and Samjhota Express rail service between the two countries were positive developments made towards strengthening the bilateral relationship.

He said that although the process of bilateral dialogue was very slow and requires a great deal of patience, he expressed the hope that it would bear fruit as there was no moving backwards this time.

“The up-coming visit of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Pakistan would be of a vital significance and would go a long way in strengthening the bilateral ties between the two countries,” he maintained.

He underscored the need for enhanced commercial relationship with India saying that the outstanding disputes, including the core issue of Kashmir, should not hamper the process as it was in the interest of both the countries.

He said that the number of Pakistani items on the trade lists of India had increased from 40 to 600 which was a significant development and reflected the positive change in the policies of the two governments.

Delivering inaugural address on behalf of University of Peshawar vice-chancellor Prof (Dr) Haroon Rashid, the dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Dr Naeen-ur- Rehman, said that economic and social health as well as peace and security in Pakistan was dependent on the quality of our relations with Afghanistan and India.

He said that second Caliph Hazrat Umar gave instructions to his commanders to extend maximum facilities to traders crossing their frontiers as commodities trafficking from areas where they were in surplus to areas where they were scarce brings about evenness in prices.

“It is unfortunate that political and economical relations between India and Pakistan have not remained good despite the fact that people of the two countries have lived side by side under one political, social and economic system in the sub-continent,” said Dr Naeem-ur-Rehman.

He said that free trade linkages with and through Afghanistan would help the region and would facilitate the reconstruction of the war torn country.

Dr Rehman said that Pakistan and Afghanistan as well as other neighbouring countries would have to open their frontiers to traffic of trade across them, eliminate tariff barriers and make less stringent laws for the international trade.

Dr Rasool Baksh Rais, Khalid Aziz, Dr Adnan Sarwar and Richard Asbeck also spoke on the occasion.—APP