Kolkata: Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit today characterised Indo-Pak relation as that of “saas-bahu” and hoped Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to his country during SAARC summit would produce tangible results in resumption of the stalled dialogue process. “We in Pakistan think this visit will lead to some tangible results in resuming the dialogue process and sooner the better I will say,” Basit said.
He said both countries should talk and India should feel comfortable in taking forward the dialogue process. Basit also hoped that the Prime Minister’s Pakistan visit would touch issues beyond SAARC. “The next summit will be in Pakistan and we hope that it will be a huge success because all SAARC leaders will be there. We have already started preparing for that summit and we hope that Mr Modi’s visit to Pakistan will add more to it beyond the SAARC issues,” Basit said.
He was speaking at an interactive session with the MCC Chamber of Commere and Industry here. “Our bilateral relation is riddled with so many issues and disputes. A small event on the Line of Control and everything comes down like this. We talk to each other for years but one incident like this and we stop talking like ‘saas bahu’,” he said.
He said the Indian Foreign Secretary’s visit to Pakistan recently was “very positive” as the two counries’ leaders were able to interact after a certain gap. “If India feels it is not yet the right time to talk, we can wait…but we will like to see this engagement to resume as quickly as possible. We will also like to feel comfortable to talk to India,” Basit said.
The Pakistan High Commissioner said “we owe it to our posterity to work seriously in removing problems between our two countries and work seriously towards normalising relations. This is a historic opportunity because the leaderships on both sides are committed to development agenda, to peaceful agenda. So, this is a time to explore all possibilities.”
