SWABI, Jan 8: District Nazim Sher Zaman Sher and a number of union council Nazims lauded on Tuesday the peace overtures and friendly gesture shown by President Pervez Musharraf to Indian prime minister at the Saarc summit at Kathmandu.

They said Pakistan was a peace-loving country and once again its president had taken a lead in extending a hand of friendship and expressed readiness to take steps for defusing tension with India. Now it was the turn of India to announce and take reciprocity measures and give up belligerence and bellicose rhetoric, they added.

They warned the Indian leadership that the steps taken by Pakistan for averting a catastrophe should not be considered its weakness and if the Indians launched an offensive it would have no option but to retaliate with full might.

Pakistan on its part, they said, had made allout efforts to avoid a holocaust and wanted to resolve all the outstanding issues between the two countries through bilateral negotiations or a third-party mediation. If the Indian leadership, they said, gave up the provocative statements against Pakistan it would be helpful in lowering the tension.