By IANS,
Islamabad: Days after the thaw with India in Thimphu, Pakistan Tuesday said it has always desired purposeful dialogue with India to resolve outstanding problems, including the “core issue” of Kashmir.
“We are trying to find a durable resolution of issues as well as cover the damage done to foreign policy during the previous regime,” Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said here Tuesday while briefing the National Assembly or lower house of parliament about the government’s policy on Kashmir.
“We want a just and peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue in light of the UN resolutions and according to the aspirations of the Kashmiri people,” he said.
The prime ministers of Pakistan and India had agreed during their meeting at Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt last year that dialogue is the only way forward, he said, while describing the recent meeting between the prime ministers of India and Pakistan in Thimphu as “positive”.
Pakistan would continue to support Kashmiris’ efforts regarding their right to self-determination, he stressed.
In their first meeting in nine months April 29, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani directed their foreign ministers and foreign secretaries to work out modalities to restore trust that could pave the way for “substantive dialogue” between the two countries.
They agreed to think afresh on how to “honestly” take forward their peace process stalled after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack.