Right time for Indo-Pakistani talks, says Sharif aide
This is the right time for India to have a dialogue with Pakistan
on various bilateral issues, as for the first time a prime minister
in that country has such a strong backing to implement an agreement,
member of Punjab provincial assembly Captain Taj Mohammad Khanzada
has said.
The Nawaz Sharif government has come to power with a landslide
victory in the recent elections, which gives the prime minister
the strength to give concrete shape to verbal promises he makes,
Khanzada said in Dehra Dun, India, during the platinum jubilee
celebrations of the Rashtriya Indian Military College.
Earlier no Pakistani government was ever so confident of going
to the "talking table", as they did not have enough
legislators or people behind them, he said adding that this time,
however, Islamabad is in a position to bargain.
The prime minister, in his speech has taken a fresh initiative
to resolve the issues confronting the nations. It is now up to
his Indian counterpart and the legislators in his coalition to
grab the opportunity, he said.
Khanzada, who belongs to the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), is
considered very close to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
''In the larger interests of humanity, talks between India and
Pakistan should be held in an atmosphere of friendship and honesty,
and both sides must be ready for a mutual give and take,'' Khanzada
said.
If talks are held in such an environment problems like Siachin
could be solved in five minutes, said the man who left the Pakistan
army in 1954 to join politics.
Khanzada, who is perhaps the oldest living alumnus of RIMC, was
the highest decorated Royal Indian Military officer before he
joined the Indian National Army. With the INA he saw action in
Burma and Malaya. He was later captured by the British and put
in solitary confinement in Red Fort for some time.
"The conditions in which the two countries find themselves
in today, are the creation of the economic exploitation of the
imperialists,'' he said and added ''but this is a passing phase,
the countries of South Asia would one day reign supreme.''
India and Pakistan must work towards creating a common market,
if this happens it would become the biggest market and the western
economies, which depend heavily on exports to both the countries,
would lose out. ''These western powers do whatever they can to
prevent this from happening, we must guard against such a thing,''
he said.
UNI
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