ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Pakistan “despite India’s negativity in scuttling SAARC process” would attend the Heart of Asia Conference due to its commitment to Afghanistan’s peace and stability.
“India has been instrumental in scuttling the SAARC summit, and Pakistan despite all negativity of India is going to participate in the Heart of Asia Conference,” the Foreign Office Spokesman Nafees Zakaria said at a weekly press briefing.
Prime Minister’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz will attend the Heart of Asia Conference being held on December 3-4 in Amritsar, India.
The Spokesman said that Pakistan believed in peaceful neighbourhood and regarded dialogue as the best option for resolution of issues.
He, however categorically said that Pakistan would not accept any pre-conditions for holding dialogue with India. It is always India that is putting up conditions for dialogue with Pakistan, he added.
The Spokesman said the Heart of Asia Conference would follow the previous agenda as the 14 countries would take stock of the progress.
“Every country has its own share of bringing stability in Afghanistan and Pakistan’s participation means its commitment for peace and stability in Afghanistan,” he said.
Zakaria said the current phase of indigenous self-determination movement in Indian occupied Kashmir had entered into the fifth month and was continuing in the face of worst violations of human rights of defenseless Kashmiris at the hands of Indian occupation forces.
“The world has before it the unending sufferings and misery of those over a thousand Kashmiris, including children, who have been deliberately blinded,” he said.
The Spokesman mentioned the British daily `The Guardian’s touching report of November 8, which said “There is no recorded instance of a modern democracy systematically and willfully shooting at people to blind them.”
He said the doctors in Indian occupied Kashmir expressed their dissatisfaction and rejected “as ambiguous” the report compiled by the Ophthalmology Pathologists in India, suspecting that there was something else about the pellet shots that was causing insides of the eye to turn into a charcoal-like substance.
Zakaria said that Pakistan had been insisting on `independent fact finding mission to the IoK’ and similar demands from UN High Commissioner in Geneva, OIC and OIC Contact Group’s Members had not been met.
On India’s growing relations with Israel and Bangladesh, the Spokesman said that Pakistan without out commenting on bilateral relations between any two countries, however stressed that ties should not affect the third country.
On Russian Foreign Ministry’s statement refuting media reports of negotiations with Pakistan regarding its inclusion in the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the Spokesman said “the statement is self-explanatory”.
Whether Pakistan could unilaterally offer other countries to join CPEC, Zakaria said “CPEC is the project of both China and Pakistan and both countries would decide as how and what sort of indulgence and participation of other countries would be made in CPEC and CPEC-related projects”.
He said that Pakistan-Russia relationship was growing steadily and “we give high importance to it”.
The Spokesman expressed shock over the tragic plane crash of Brazilian Succor team and said Adviser Sartaj Aziz in his letter to Brazilian Foreign Minister had conveyed condolences.
