Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit, in an interview with Indian TV channel has said that Pakistan is ready for a dialogue with India on the sidelines of the Heart of Asia conference in Amritsar next week. Urging for resumption of dialogue process between the two neighbouring countries, Basit said, “We can delay talks for months or even for years. But ultimately, a solution to the problems between India and Pakistan can only come through dialogue, and therefore, both nations must sit and discuss all the issues that confront them.â€While commenting on tensions at India-Pakistan border, Basit said, “Escalation along the Line of Control is not in Pakistan’s as well as India’s interest.†The Pakistan army is heavily deployed along the country’s western borders as part of the Operation Zarb-i-Azb and it is wrong to say that the escalation is being fuelled by Pakistan, he maintained. Last month, Sartaj Aziz had confirmed that Pakistan will be attending the upcoming Heart of Asia conference scheduled to be held in India. In September this year, India decided not to take part in South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) summit which was supposed to be held in Islamabad Pakistan. Announcing Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to not participate in the conference, India’s external affairs ministry had said there were other countries that had expressed reservations about participating in the summit amid heightened tensions over terrorism. The Indian prime minister stepped up a drive to isolate Pakistan diplomatically after the Uri army base attack. Hours after the attack occurred, Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh termed Pakistan a ‘terrorist state’. India also accused Pakistan of involvement in the attack. The Uri attack occurred days before Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was set to address the United Nations General Assembly regarding Indian human rights violations in held Kashmir. Following the attack, India claimed to have conducted a cross-border ‘surgical strike’ against ‘launch pads of terror’ in Azad Jammu and Kashmir a claim Pakistan has strongly rejected. Pakistan maintains India is attempting to divert the world’s attention away from ‘atrocities’ committed by government forces in India-held Kashmir. The Indian leadership needs to realise and sooner they do, it will be beneficial not only for the two countries but the entire region as no matter can be resolved through war hysteria but sitting on table for negotiations. In fact New Delhi’s provocations against Pakistan reflect its frustration out of failure in addressing domestic issues as well as positive developments taking place in Pakistan including the CPEC and other projects. We hope that Modi government will positively reciprocate to the Pakistani offer of talks as this is the only way forward for the two countries to address their outstanding disputes including the core issue of Kashmir. India should shun the current jingoism, war-mongering and stop State terrorism in occupied Kashmir and positively engage with Pakistan to move forward for the resolution of all outstanding issues including Jammu and Kashmir. It would be in the interest of the both countries. It is high time that the India should reply positively on Pakistan’s offer to initiate talks for resolving outstanding issues.
