PM Nawaz returns home after attending Saarc summit
November 28, 2014
Speaking to journalists on board, Nawaz Sharif said Pakistan wants ties with India on the basis of dignity, self-respect and honour and desires a "meaningful" dialogue to resolve all issues including the Kashmir dispute.
The Prime Minister said he twice shook hands with his Indian counterpart and exchanged pleasantries.
However, he said that India should not have cancelled the Foreign Secretary level talks in August as was agreed upon during his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi following his swearing in at New Delhi.
‘We had been talking to the Kashmiri leaders in the past whenever Pakistan-India talks are held. This is nothing new as we have to seek the opinion of the Kashmiri leaders on an issue that concerns them the most.’
He said Pakistan wishes to pursue the talks process from a position of dignity honour and self respect.
‘We believe in it and will maintain it at all costs,’ PM Nawaz Sharif told the reporters.
He said Pakistan has always desired a meaningful dialogue with India with sincerity and wants it to be reciprocated from the other side.
When asked how the ice between the two leaders broke, he said when he arrived at the Retreat, Prime Minister Modi along with other leaders was already there. He met others and also shook hands with Prime Minister Modi.
However he categorically stated that if India wants to restore ties Kashmir issue must be discussed and that too seriously with full sincerity.
The Prime Minister recalled the number of deaths in Pakistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir due to the unprovoked firing by the Indian troops along the Line of Control and even the Working Boundary.
To a question he said this issue would also be taken up with India when the talk process resumes.
He reiterated his stance that since it was India that called off the talks the onus of starting the dialogue was with it.(APP)
