Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Monday said there was hardly any hope of a positive outcome from the talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in the backdrop of the ongoing tension.
Speaking on the sidelines of a Sangat Darshan programme started from Monday in the Fatehgarh Churian Assembly segment, Badal said that both India and Pakistan had not been able to achieve any headway from such dialogue processes in the past due to tensions between the two countries. Badal said the dialogue process was meaningless until the ongoing tension was defused.
At the same time, he added that restoration of peace between India and Pakistan and enhanced trade was the need of the hour as it would help usher in a new era of unprecedented development in Punjab. “Every Punjabi wants trade between the two countries to increase as it would bring in economic benefits to the State, besides enhancing people to people contact,” Badal said.