India must look at issues 'unemotionally': Pakistan

Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, who will hold talks with her Indian counterpart S M Krishna over the weekend, on Friday expressed hope that the two Asian neighbours would normalise relations.

Asserting that the talks between the two sides are moving ahead in a positive trajectory, Khar said in an interview to Asian News International: "I think it is important that every time we get a chance like this, to be able to take a few steps back and spend some time thinking about the intent behind these talks. The intent behind these talks is that India-Pakistan relations must normalize completely; India, Pakistan cease to create headlines; India, Pakistan meetings cease to create headlines, and they are like any two neighbours meeting." 

Khar said the two countries have had a difficult past and some serious disputes.

"The territorial disputes, including the core issue of Kashmir... we have had a relationship, which has been accident-prone, event-based etc. I think, in the last two years, what we have been able to show is a serious intent at the political leadership level, to forge ahead without being overwhelmed by the past, and to really create room for the future to prosper, rather than be bogged down by the accidents and history of the past," she added.

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Khar further emphasised that Pakistan has sent some serious messages in terms of changing its approach towards India in the last few years.

"Our movement on trade relations or normalisation of trade relations with India is a small part of those equations. If we have changed a position that we held for 45 years, it is encouraging India too to come forward and change some positions that we have held," Khar said.

"We must not let this relationship be defined by the positions that we have held in the past. If you have a futuristic vision and look at the regional and national situation, then we should be more encouraged to move forward to normalise relations between the two countries as much as possible," she added.

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When asked whether Pakistan had put the resolution to the Kashmir dispute on the backburner, Khar said: "I don't look at it putting anything on the backburner. I look at it as moving forward to resolving the core issue of Kashmir and the other territorial disputes."

"Today, we are creating the confidence, the environment to be able to move towards a time when journalists like yourself will not a start a conversation by the affects of 26/11," she added.

Khar said India needed to look at the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks 'unemotionally'.

"As far as 26/11 is concerned, we must be able to look at it unemotionally. We would want this issue to be resolved as soon as possible," she said.

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Making a strong pitch for the resumed dialogue process to continue, she said, moving forward will mean "Pakistan and India being able to sit around the dialogue table and convert the baby steps into medium-sized strides, which I think is already happening and then big leaps forward and for that we need to change the mindset.

"I am appalled when I am told that terrorism continues to be an issue. Who can tell me that terrorism is not an issue for Pakistan? And this is all old-time (things)"

The minister said whatever has happened before today is past and we should not miss on opportunities to build cooperation in future.

"I would be very sorry if Pakistan chose to define its identity by hostile relations with India and vice-versa," she said.

"Anything that happened before today is the past, anything that happens from today is going to be the future. Do we want what happened in the past to define what is going to happen tomorrow? The past year has not been a bad year in terms of the messages that have been sent by both countries," Khar stated.

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"The fact that Indian External Affairs Minister S M Krishna attended dinner, which was given by the Permanent Representative in New York where Pakistan was vying for a non-permanent seat in the UN Security Council; that may be meaningless to many people, but it sent a very important gesture. How we move forward is more important to me than what happened in the past," she added.

Citing the 1971 war to justify her statement, Khar said: "As 1971 cannot be unemotional for Pakistan. But do we want to remain emotional in judging what our intentions are today? Please do a realistic analysis of what Pakistan can and has done. These are judicial processes, which have to be worked. We understand that a judicial process has to take its time and has to go through the process."

"We are committed to doing whatever we can do. Let me please encourage you not to doubt our intention to put this matter to rest to the satisfaction of the Indians and to the satisfaction of the Pakistanis," she added.

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