LAHORE, May 3: Speakers at a meeting have said that India is not serious to settle Kashmir and other issues with Pakistan and is adopting delaying tactics.

They were speaking at the launching of a book “Nawa-i-atish-i-gul”, a collection of articles written by columnist Rana Abdul Baqi and published in a national Urdu daily, held at the auditorium of Pakistan Movement Workers Trust here on Thursday.

Veteran Muslim League leader Syed Ahmad Saeed Kirmani said India had never reconciled itself with the creation of Pakistan during the past 60 years and was spending billions of rupees in Balochistan to disintegrate the rest of Pakistan after its successful separation of East Pakistan in 1971.

Justice Muhammad Ilyas (retired) said Quaid-i-Azam wanted elimination of poverty of the Muslims of the sub-continent and established Pakistan for this purpose. But the gap between the rich and the poor widened and equal opportunities for progress were denied to the poor. The educational system was discriminatory and children of the poor could not get good education.

Jamaat-i-Islami naib amir Maulana Muhammad Aslam Saleemi said the book which highlighted mindset of the Hindus of India provided food for thought for the people of Pakistan. The author had given a detailed analysis of the Indo-Pak relations.

Ismael Qureshi advocate said civil and military bureaucracy had never allowed democracy to function in Pakistan and the repeated army intervention had done a great harm to the country. The army had no role in the creation of Pakistan.

Dr Sohrab Aslam Khan said the present movement of the legal community was a constitutional struggle for the independence of judiciary, the rule of law and supremacy of the Constitution.

Foundation chairman Majid Nizami in his presidential remarks said credit must be given to Dr Abdul Qadeer for making Pakistan a nuclear power. He said Dr Qadeer had been under detention for the past three years for making Pakistan invulnerable. He demanded his immediate release.

Other speakers included Malik Hamid Sarfraz, Dr Ajmal Niazi, Dr Maskeen Hijazi, Dr Parveen Khan, Dr Shafiq Jullandhry, Prof Abdul Qayyum Qureshi, Prof Ahmad Husain and Azizul Haq Qureshi.