Indian HC hopes cricket diplomacy to ease Pak-India ties
March 30, 2018
LAHORE: Indian High Commissioner Ajay Bisaria expressed hope on Friday that the time for sports between India and Pakistan will come, adding that the environment will hopefully be conducive for cricket as well.
Bisaria was speaking to businessmen at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The Indian envoy said that the 70-year-old policy will not benefit anyone and when the ice breaks the bilateral relations will improve and issues will be resolved.
He said that a future, different from the past is needed, adding that the youth of the two neighbouring countries has moved on from the bitterness of the past.
The Indian HC expressed hope that the Pakistani and Indian youth will take things between the two countries forward.
The visa tension between India and Pakistan is a pressing issue that should be resolved, said Bisaria, adding that he would try that the maximum number of Indian visas are issued to traders.
He said India and Pakistan are neighbouring countries and would continue to remain so. Bisaria added the two countries could only progress if they give each other space for dialogue.
“People want to come together,” he said. “The issues [between India and Pakistan] are not such that cannot be resolved.”
Before attending a dinner in Lahore last night, Bisaria reiterated his statement, saying he was positive that tension between the two neighbouring countries would end soon.
Recently, the tension between the two countries escalated after Pakistani diplomats and their families were harassed in New Delhi.
In one such incident, children of a Pakistani diplomat were harassed as the car they were travelling in was intercepted in the Indian capital.
It was said that such incidents made the stay of Pakistani diplomats and their families in New Delhi difficult.
Before the harassment incidents came to light, Pakistani authorities had been protesting against the violation of ceasefire agreement along the Line of Control by Indian troops, which had claimed the lives of a number of innocent civilians, including children.
