Pak 'committed' to address terror concerns

Ahead of the Indo-Pak Foreign ministers' meeting, Pakistan on Wednesday said it was committed to ensuring the concerns about terrorism in the region, but a handful of non-state actors should not be allowed to derail the peace process this time.

"Pakistan is ready for peace. Pakistan is committed to ensuring that the concerns about terrorism in our region and beyond are all addressed," Pakistan's envoy to the US Hussein Haqqani said.

At the same time, Pakistan also wants its own concerns regarding Kashmir and its status as a lower riparian state in the Indus Water system be brought to the table, Haqqani said in his remarks at Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank, organised by Young Professionals in Foreign Policy.

"Above all, both sides need to break through the paradigm of never going beyond partition," he said in his remarks at the talk which was addressed by the senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyer.

"It has to be understood that the India Pakistan dynamic is primarily rooted in history. It is only by escaping that history and going beyond it and looking at the future that we would actually move forward," he said.

Haqqani said the democratic government in Pakistan that was elected in 2008 is absolutely committed to settling all outstanding disputes, working with all its neighbours.

"I think, we have made tremendous progress in our relationship with Afghanistan and we have made tremendous progress in our relationship with India until the tragedy of Mumbai," he said.

He said it was unfortunate that the perpetrators of the Mumbai attack were able to derail the process.

"This time around, I think, we both have to have conviction that we would not allow a handful of non-state actors to stop our States and our people from coming together and talking," he said.

Contending that the future generations of the region should not face the high cost of war borne in the past, he said rather than training guns on each other the two countries should consider problems like poverty, hunger and disease as common enemies.

"I think, Pakistan and India now need to have a new dynamic in approach to each other as democracies," Haqqani said.

The top Pakistani diplomat in the US noted that it is important to show some patience and understanding so that the democratic process in the country gains strength.

"The most important thing is not to let non-State actors, not to let terrorist groups and extremists hold our dialogue hostage," he argued.