DAWN.COM

Today's Paper | May 14, 2024

Published 28 Jul, 2011 10:02pm

Neither side deviated from its position: Hina Khar

LAHORE, July 28: After spending three days in India on what has been described as a challenging assignment, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said here on Thursday that Pakistan had not deviated from its ‘stated legal and political’ position in talks held in New Delhi.

“Neither Pakistan nor India deviated from their stated legal and political positions,” the foreign minister said while talking to reporters on her return at the Allama Iqbal Airport.

Ms Khar, however, regretted that the two countries held ‘divergent positions’.

“Our stated positions are divergent but if we continue this divergence then we will be heading to a point where we start considering each other enemy. This should not happen and this divergence should be converted into convergence.

“Shall we continue having differences between us for more and more years to come and involving new generations?,” she asked. The blame game should end now.

“It is in our interest to normalise relations with India. I talked about enhancing trust between the two countries,” she said.

Ms Khar expressed satisfaction over the ‘outcome’ of the talks and said she and her counterpart S.M. Krishna had agreed to continue to pursue ‘uninterruptible’ dialogue.

“The outcome of talks is positive and constructive. India has shown interest in resolving all issues with Pakistan. What we have to do is to continue the dialogue.”

Replying to a question, she said: “Yes, my meeting with Kashmiri leaders was minded in New Delhi but I had told the Indians about Pakistan’s principled stance on Kashmir.”

She said that Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had accepted an invitation to visit Pakistan.

“The Indian prime minister has assured going for an extra mile to resolve all outstanding issues, including Kashmir,” she said.

Ms Khar responded cautiously when asked if the Balochistan issue had also been discussed in the talks. “Every issue was discussed,” she said, but hastened to add that India wanted a ‘stable’ Pakistan.

When asked whether India wanted a speedy trial in Pakistan of accused in the Mumbai attack case, she said: “Yes we understand the feeling of Indian people in this regard but there has been no intentional delay to prosecute the culprits. The difference is the outlook towards it.”

On a question about the water issue, Ms Khar said the implementation on the Indus Water Treaty was very important for the two countries.

She was not happy over ‘glamourisation’ of her image by the Indian media. “Paparazzi are everywhere,” she said. She also accused the local media of acting in a similar manner.

Read Comments

Pakistan's iCube-Qamar beams back first images from moon's orbit Next Story