Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit has hoped that US President Barack Obama’s visit to India will contribute in bringing some stability in the region.
“I think when President Obama visits we hope that will result in further strengthening of the bilateral relationship between Pakistan-US and Pakistan-India and will contribute to injecting some stability in the region as well,” the ambassador said at the India Today Round Table conference. When asked if Obama’s New Delhi visit could actually inject improvement in relationship between US, India and Pakistan, Basit said, “We don’t see it as a zero-sum game.”
The High Commissioner said that Pakistan was keen to have ‘constructive talks’ with India to resolve the Kashmir issue. However, Pakistan continues to maintain that Kashmir was “not a territorial issue” for them and that they want to engage with India to produce some positivity in finding a solution to the issue. Basit termed this engagement as “On Kashmir, it took two to tango.”
“Kashmir is an issue and India recognises that we need to resolve that issue. We have this composite dialogue process and Jammu & Kashmir is part of that dialogue process. Jammu & Kashmir is not a territorial issue, it is about the people of Jammu & Kashmir. So, our engagement with them (India) as we look at it is to produce some positivity,” Basit said
Meanwhile, on Pakistan’s recent decision to impose a ban on Hafiz Saeed-led Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Haqqani network, the ambassador said that it was in accordance with the UN resolution. “We are proceeding strictly in accordance with UN resolution and Jamaat’s bank account has been frozen and there is a ban on the travelling abroad of its leadership,” Basit said without clearly mentioning that the ban has been imposed.
“If you are referring to Hafiz Saeed as to why he has not been put behind bars, I would like to remind you that the resolution (UN) itself doesn’t warrant or require member states to lock up such individuals. We are responsible members of international community and understand our responsibility. And, we will not take advantage of any lacuna, if there exists one in the UN resolution,” he said.
On the issue of terrorism his own country, Basit said, “We have a strong apprehension that we have internal problems as well but on the other hand we do find that there are some external reasons as well which and encouraging terrorism in the FATA region and the Balochistan region.”