PESHAWAR, July 17: Awami National Party leader Asfandyar Wali Khan has expressed the hope that Pakistan and India will resume the process of talks to resolve contentious issues.

Mr Khan, who is presently leading a party delegation to India, has met Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress Party president Sonia Gandhi and senior officials.

A party press release issued here on Monday said Mr Khan also delivered a lecture at the Himachal University.

According to the press release, the ANP leader emphasised the need for establishing peace in Afghanistan, which he said was a prerequisite for peace in the South Asian region. He stressed that it was time to bring peace to the Pakhtun belt and stop killing of innocent people.

Mr Khan said Pakistan needed to review its policy towards Afghanistan, otherwise the whole nation would pay for it.

He maintained that Pakhtuns were patriotic and progressive people and the picture the government was painting to the world had no reality.

ANP MPA Bashir Ahmad Bilour said his party supported the Charter of Democracy signed between the People’s Party Parliamentarians and the Pakistan Muslim League-N and wanted supremacy of the civil authority over military power.