Indo-Pak dialogue should not be held hostage to domestic politics: Khar

Islamabad: Pakistan today termed India’s sharp reaction to recent ceasefire violation and killing of two soldiers as a “deep disappointment” and said the dialogue process can remain uninterrupted only if it is not held hostage to domestic politics. “For any movement, we need a conducive environment. If you expect Kashmir to be resolved today, it is not possible. The level of mistrust in both countries has to be reduced,” Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar told reporters today. She made the remarks while summing up the government’s foreign policy achievements over the past five years during a news conference at the Foreign Office. The outgoing Pakistan People’s Party-led government had jettisoned six decades of animosity and hostility towards India and initiated a policy of trust-building to create an atmosphere that could help resolve outstanding issues, she said. [caption id=“attachment_661841” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar addresses a news conference at the Foreign Office in Islamabad, Pakistan. AP[/caption] For the past 66 years, hostility and animosity had been inculcated in young minds in both countries but the government decided to make a break with the past, she said. “We decided that it was time to start changing the environment, the narrative and the mindset and to start investing in friendship and trust-building and serious mature relations with each other rather than investing in hostility and animosity,” Khar said. For the region to grow both countries should become stakeholders in each other’s success, she said. One indication of the changed approach of Pakistan was the decision to reverse a 40-year-old policy and to normalise trade relations with India, she said. The Foreign Ministry adopted a futuristic policy on ties with India while being mindful of lessons from history. The course of action was determined by the “requirements of the future rather than the hangover of the past”. Khar, however, cautioned that the people should not expect long-standing issues like the Kashmir dispute to be resolved in the near future. She listed India’s reaction to a string recent ceasefire violations along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir and the killing of two Indian soldiers as a “deep disappointment”. Despite the setback posed by the incidents on the LoC, Pakistan and India should make their dialogue process uninterruptible and this would be possible only if it is not held hostage to domestic politics, she added. “We tried to solve the problem of Kashmir through war (and) we have failed. Let’s give creating trust a chance,” said Khar, Pakistan’s youngest and first woman Foreign Minister. Her term will end when the government completes its tenure on 16 March. Asked about the government’s failure to deliver on its promise of granting Most Favoured Nation-status to India, Khar said trade normalisation was not a domestically popular measure but it “was the right thing to do”. The PPP-led government had forged an independent foreign policy that was not hostile to any country or region, Khar said. Pakistan’s most important ties were with its neighbours like China, India, Afghanistan and Iran, she pointed out. On the peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan, Khar said only the Afghan people could decide the future course of action though Pakistan has “huge stakes” in the peace and stability of the neighbouring country. Pakistan’s role is “only to facilitate what the Afghans want” and no solutions will be imposed on Kabul, she said. The peace process must be led, owned and driven by the Afghans, she said. PTI