ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said on Sunday that India never opened a window of opportunity for dialogue and goodwill with Pakistan as all the development in this regard was sabotaged when the talks between the two countries were postponed after the Pathankot attack.
“It is a very strange thing as it was decided here on Dec 9 that the dialogue will resume but then that Pathankot incident occurred and everything vanished into thin air,” Mr Aziz said while speaking during a TV show.
He was answering a question regarding Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar’s recent statement about the ‘slowly closing’ window of goodwill and dialogue with Pakistan as “Pakistan separates terrorists between good ones and bad ones”.
He maintained that if India continued to repeat this old allegation of terrorism when “it comes to talks but they must remember that terrorism is a part of the composite dialogue which Pakistan proposes”.
“They say that they will talk if we (Pakistan) make some progress on terrorism but we say that they (India) should talk on all issues, including Kashmir,” said Mr Aziz.
He, however, added that Pakistan was not dying for talks and “there is no restlessness on the Pakistani side for dialogues but if this region has to see peace, this region has to see coordination, then the whole world agrees that India and Pakistan should have composite dialogue”.
Answering a question, the adviser said that Pakistan was not unaware of Indian efforts to integrate Kashmir and change its demography and such efforts by India would not succeed.
“Protests against Indian policies have increased there (India-held Kashmir), Pakistani flags have been raised there and people are supporting Pakistani position on the issue in the region,” he said.
Mr Aziz said that the ground reality of Kashmir was against India and the people of Kashmir had not given up their struggle for self-determination and Pakistan was supporting them ‘morally and diplomatically’ and would raise this issue at the UN General Assembly, Human Rights Council and international level with P5 countries.
Published in Dawn, June 6th, 2016
