Pak: Dialogue with India not a favour, but necessity

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan rejected India’s stand on resumption of dialogue between the two countries on Thursday by saying it does not accept the conditions being imposed on it.

Foreign office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam said, “Dialogue with India is not a favour, but a necessity for peace and development in South Asia.”

The statement came a day after the Indian defence minister talked about the drawing of a new “red line” by saying that Pakistan would have to choose between talking to the Indian government or to the Kashmiri Hurriyat leadership.

Responding to Arun Jaitley’s statement, the Pakistan foreign office spokesperson said, “the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) leaders are not separatists, but freedom fighters who are carrying out their movement from an occupied territory.”

At the same time, Pakistan once again made a plea for trade. “India can use the Karachi Port for trade purposes,” she commented.

Analysts said that the tone of the statement suggests that relations between India and Pakistan will not improve in the near future. “India’s statement on Wednesday has put Pakistan in a corner. It cannot respond in any other way,” said analyst Talat Masood.

“It was because of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that the talks were heading in the right direction. It was India who decided to put a halt to them. Now it is up to them; if they want negotiations, they will have to take the initiative themselves. We have no contact with India,” Tariq Fatemi, special assistant to the Prime Minister on foreign affairs, said in an interview last week.