NEW DELHI : Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit today justified his meeting with separatist Kashmiri leaders saying they were legitimate stakeholders in the peace process, and called for moving forward to normalise relations between the two countries.
Mr Basit pointed out that Kashmir had been accepted as a bilateral issue by both India and Pakistan under the Simla agreement.
“We understand that India Pakistan relationship is complex but all feel that the time has come to move forward,”the Pakistan High Commissioner said replying to questions in a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents Club.
“We attack enormous importance to peaceful relations with India,” he said two days after India called off the Foreign Secretary-level talks in protest against the Pakistan High Commission going ahead with meeting with the Kashmiri leaders.
Meeting with the Kashmir leaders was part of the larger process of resolving all issues with India through dialogue and peaceful means, and this practice was not something new, he said. Mr Basit said he very much appreciated Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech on the Independence Day in which he called for SAARC countries working together to face the common challenges.
While terming the cancellation of the Foreign Secretary talks as a set back, he still expressed the hope that the two countries would sit across the table , saying,”diplomacy is the art of the possible.”
The Pakistan High Commissioner said there was need to look at the issue ‘dispassionately’.
“You have your natural position, we have our natural position. There was a need to explore..”, he said.
When asked why Pakistan was thinking that Hurriyat and other Kashmiri Separatist leaders were the only representatives of the Kashmir people, he said, “that is our assessment.”
The High Commissioner said by engaging in dialogue, India and Pakistan were not doing any favour to each other as they would be only acting in consonance with the feelings of the people on both sides of the border.
“We would not allow ourselves to be distracted in anyway. Pakistan is seriously committed to the peace process. At the end of the day both the countries need to work with a sense of mutual respect. Let us build on the bonhomie generated during the two Prime Ministers’ meeting,” he said referring to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s meeting with Mr Modi when the former came to attend the latter’s oath taking ceremony in May.
The two prime ministers had a very constructive and positive talks, as they felt that time had come to move from confrontation to cooperation, and they also agreed that the Foreign Secretaries should meet to take stock of bilateral relations, the Pakistan High Commissioner said.
Asked how relations between the two countries could become normal when there had been 85 violations of ceasefire between the two countries, Mr Basit claimed that there had been 57 violations from the Indian side and expressed the hope that ‘this will come to an end.’
On the impact of cancellation of foreign secretary talks on India-Pakistan relations, Mr Basit said, “there have been set back in the past as well. I am sure we will work together.”
“Diplomacy never closes the door. I am very positive,” he added.
When asked how much he thought diplomacy would matter, as under the new dispensation in India, it was the top leadership that mattered, the Pakistan High Commissioner said, “It (diplomacy) does matter. I am sure diplomats on both sides were constantly working towards our shared objectives.” Answering another question, he denied that any back channels talks were happening between the two countries.
Replying to another question, he asserted that he had committed no breach of diplomatic protocol by talking to Kashmiri leaders.
“I think Indian diplomats keep on meeting people of all hues and shades,” he added. (AGENCIES)
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