The former Pakistan army chief and president Parvez Musharraf Saturday asked India to take lead in improving ties with the country.
New Delhi, Nov 17 / NationalTurk – ‘ Being a big country India should take the lead in improving ties with Pakistan and show that it has a big heart,’ Musharraf said while speaking on HT Leadership Summit here.
Stating that violent partition, three wars, arms race, confrontation between intelligence organisations of the two countries, total breakdown of trust and confidence were reasons for acrimony between the two countries, he said there was a need to open our eyes to the new reality and cooperate for deprived people of two countries.
Musharraf said the wounds of Kashmir continues and needs to be addressed. “When I was in power, four parameters were developed to ease strain in relations between the two countries. Gradual demilitarization, giving maximum self-governance, making LoC irrelevant, agreement on Siachin issue were important among them.”
He said water dispute between two countries had seeds of confrontation and the two countries should adhere to the Indus water treaty. “There was a need to undo military standoff between the third and sixth largest army having both conventional and nuclear capabilities,” he stressed.
The former Pakistan army chief said his country was ready for mutual, proportional reduction of forces. He also said that the Afghan situation was also a very sensitive one.
“India should avoid any attempt to create anti-Pakistan Afghanistan,” he said and stressed on the need of intelligence agencies of the two countries to stop damaging the other nation.
He expressed the hope that leadership of the two countries will rise to the occasion and normalise ties, with India taking the lead.
Mussharraf said friendly relations between nuclear-armed neighbours were vital for the progress and development of South Asia. “Visas should be eased between the two countries. I was not given a visa during my last trip to India,” he said.
He said India and Pakistan should learn from Europe, which has fought through the ages, but now allowed easy communication between the European Union countries. “We should emulate Europe’s example,” he added.
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