Pakistan on Friday said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's remarks in Amritsar offering a 'Treaty of Peace, Security and Friendship' to it reflected some positive sentiments and contained an acknowledgement of the need to move forward on the resolution of Kashmir and other contentious issues.
PM offers peace, security pact to Pak
"We have seen some reports about Dr Singh's remarks. It reflects some positive sentiments," Pakistan Foreign office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam told PTI in Islamabad.
Flagging off the Amritsar-Nankana Sahib bus service linking the two Punjabs, the prime minister offered a 'Treaty of Peace, Security and Friendship' to Pakistan as a culmination of the ongoing peace process.
On Dr Singh's remarks that solutions to the contentious issues should be based on ground realities, Aslam said that from Pakistan's point of view the ground reality was that status quo - accepting the Line of Control as a solution to the Kashmir issue - was not acceptable to either Pakistan or the Kashmiris. So, a viable solution has to be found, which is acceptable to all parties, she added.
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On terrorism, Aslam said this was an issue concerning all countries. Islamabad opposes terrorism and there was a need for Pakistan as well as other countries to work more in this regard.
Aslam said Musharraf has been maintaining that the resolution of the Kashmir issue would help people of South Asia realise their full potential to effectively fight poverty and ignorance. "There was a need for bold steps from both the countries to resolve the contentious issue with sincerity and flexibility to overcome the legacy of past," Aslam said.
"President Musharraf has taken bold steps by making the country a hub of economic activity and offering energy corridor through gas pipelines from Iran and Central Asia to India. The resolution of the Kashmir issue would help restore the confidence and remove the mistrust between the two countries," she added.
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