ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The prime minister’s adviser on national security and foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz has said that India will have to take the initiative to revive the stalled peace process this time as it was New Delhi which had suspended the dialogue process with Islamabad.
The Indian government had called off the foreign secretary level talks between the two countries scheduled to be held on August 25 to carry forward the dialogue process, citing a meeting between the Pakistani high commissioner to India Abdul Basit and Kashmiri separatist leaders as the reason.
In an interview with a TV channel, the adviser stressed the need for resumption of the dialogue process between Pakistan and India to settle all the outstanding disputes including Kashmir.
The adviser said that resolution of Kashmir dispute is prerequisite for durable peace in the region.
The Indian defence minister Arun Jaitley earlier this month asked Pakistan to make a “conscious” choice that whether it wants to talk to the Indian government or those who want to break India.
“We create the environment, we fix up a dialogue at the level of foreign secretaries, our foreign secretary is to visit Pakistan (and) literally a few hours before that they invite the separatists for a dialogue to their high commission (in New Delhi),” Jaitley said at the India Economic Summit in New Delhi on November 5.
“So I think a new red line has to be drawn in Pakistan to reconsider this question that who they want to speak to? Do they want to speak to the government of India or they want to speak to those who want to break India,” Jaitley said.
However a day after, Pakistan’s foreign office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam said that the All Parties Hurriyet Conference (APHC) leaders are not separatists but freedom fighters who are carrying out their movement from an occupied territory.
The spokesperson said that Pakistan does not accept conditions on composite dialogues with India.
