India avoids third party mediation, says Foreign Minister
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Abdul Sattar Qamar
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MULTAN, March 13th: Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said that Pakistan is facing Mumbai like situation every day while Indian is crying for one day's Mumbai incident,we are in the grip of terrorism and we are waging struggle and a war against terrorism sincerely and seriously, Talking to newsmen at Multan airport on Saturday.He said that one can not remain stuck in one issue adding that this situation was untenable. While India was concerned about one Mumbai incident, Pakistan had faced many Mumbai-like incidents recently that not only killed innocent people but also affected the economy badly. (AFGHAN JIRGA)He said that Peace "Jirga" was being organised on April 29 in Kabul,In which more than 1000 elders of different tribes and a pakistani delegation headed by Asfandyar Wali would participate in this jirga.The Minister said," it was the desire of Afghanistan that such a jirga should be held in Islamabad. Shah Mehmood said on Saturday he would visit Saudi Arabia on April 3 on the invitation of the Saudi counterpart. He said Pakistan and Saudi Arabia enjoy deep friendly relations and Saudi leaders wanted to take Pakistan into confidence on the recent visit of the Indian Prime Minister to Saudi Arabia. To a question on reports of Indian intentions of seeking Saudi involvement in efforts for removing differences between Pakistan and India, he said he did not think India would have sought it because it always discouraged third party involvement in the matter. “However, as far as Pakistan is concerned, we have no objection to it,” he added. To a question on proof of Indian involvement in Pakistan, he said Pakistan had discussed the matter with India during the recent foreign secretary level talks. He said India repeated its stance on the Mumbai incident and Pakistan told them all suspects had been arrested and facing court trials. “We have told them that courts in Pakistan are independent, like India,” he added. The minister condemned the Lahore bomb blasts which killed around 57 people and added that Pakistan had been facing Mumbai-like tragedies every other day. He said India had not yet come up with a clear mind on resumption of dialogue with Pakistan. The foreign minister said cooperation between Pakistan and Afghanistan would expand in diverse sectors and the target of enhancing the bilateral trade volume up to $ 5 billion by 2015 looked achievable. “President Hamid Karzai, during his recent visit, appreciated Pakistan’s proposal of tripartite cooperation involving Pakistan, China and Afghanistan to expand ties in the economic sector and trade,” he added. He said that the Afghan President had liked the idea and said he would discuss it with the Chinese leadership during his forthcoming visit to China. Shah Mehmood Qureshi said the two countries also discussed issues related of mutual interest and the Afghan President had expressed resolve that his country’s soil would not be allowed to be used against Pakistan. The minister said Afghanistan was considering some projects over the Kabul river and Pakistan had proposed a bilateral engagement to devise a mechanism to plug chances of a misunderstanding on water between the two countries in future. “There is no misunderstanding today between the two countries,” he added. He said the joint declaration signed by Pakistan and Afghanistan indicated that bilateral relations had improved. He said the Afghan Transit Trade Agreement had also been discussed and it was resolved to address all issues. “Matters of setting up rail and road link between the two countries besides a CASA-1000 electricity project for the import of power to Pakistan via Afghanistan were also discussed,” he added.He said, According to a roadmap agreed between the two sides after three meetings on Wednesday, a jirgagai (mini-jirga) would first be held in Kabul shortly after Afghanistan’s internal peace jirga on April 29. The jirgagai will be followed by a grand jirga in Islamabad. The grand jirga process was initiated in 2007 as an attempt to narrow down differences between the two countries and delineate the role Pakhtun tribes straddling the Pak-Afghan border could play in fighting Al Qaeda and Taliban.He further said that Relations with Afghanistan were improving rapidly and Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed to devise a Marshal plan-like agreement for the region to banish militancy.To a question Shah Mehmood said India had ever avoided the third party mediation (Salsi)in dialogues between Pakistan and India, nor India had made any offer to Saudi Arabia for mediation.However we would welcome such a move.He declined to level the allegation of India's involvement in terrorist and subversive activities in Pakistan Particularly in Lahore, Balochistan and other parts of the country. However he said that Interior Minister Rehman Malik had provided some solid proofs of India's involvement in terrorist activities which were handed over to foreign secretary during recent meeting. Qureshi said," I have no spare time merely for photo-session and I have clearly conveyed to India that we cannot afford the dialogues for the sake of dialogues," we wanted result-oriented and purposeful dialogue nor Pakistan was in hurry and could wait for meaningful dialogue process.Foreign Minister said Pakistan has suggested a roadmap for structured dialogue with India stressing that the interaction should be meaningful and result-oriented. he said that India was facing some internal problems on the issue of resumption of dialogue.(Dr.AAFIA) Shah Mehmood Qureshi replied that American judicial system does not allow even President Obama to interfere into the affairs of any court, However we are trying to bring Dr.Aafia back to home sincerely and we have raised voice for her release on all fora.He said that there was no precedent of spending huge money on any pakistani for contesting one's case
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