'Tension' with India distraction to Pak's war on terror: PM

Islamabad, Mar 17 (PTI) Pakistan has said the world
community should nudge India to resolve all "core" bilateral
issues, including Kashmir and sharing of river waters, arguing
that "tension" on its eastern border is a distraction to its
fight against al-Qaeda and Taliban in its restive tribal belt.

"We want to maintain very good relations with India and
with (rest of) our neighbours. Our enemy is terrorism and we
have to focus on terrorism... We want the world to
concentrate so that with India we resolve all our core issues
including Jammu and Kashmir and (differences over sharing of
river) water," Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said.
"We should concentrate more on the poor people of both of
our countries. Our focus should be on those real issues,"
Gilani said in an interview to the 'Financial Times'.
He was responding to a question on the next steps to be
taken to normalise bilateral ties following the Foreign
Secretary-level parleys held last month.
Noting that Pakistan and India have traditionally been
rivals, Gilani said the tension on Pakistan's eastern border
is a "distraction" for the fight against terrorism on the
western frontier with Afghanistan.
Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants have found a safe haven in
Pakistan's lawless tribal belt bordering Afghanistan and the
US has been pressing Islamabad to take more steps against
them.
"The world should understand that we can concentrate more
on extremism and terrorism if we (India and Pakistan) are on
good relations with each other," he added.
Gilani also said that he wanted "composite dialogue with
India" but it should be "meaningful."
Asked when he would meet his Indian counterpart Manmohan
Singh, Gilani did not give a direct reply and noted that Singh
had said that dialogue is the only way forward but "there is a
lot of pressure within (India) which doesn't let him move
forward."
Referring to his meeting with Singh in Sharm el-Sheikh
last year, he said they had agreed that the composite dialogue
should not become hostage to the Mumbai terror attacks.
Asked about the possibility of reviving former military
ruler Pervez Musharraf's blueprint to resolve the Kashmir
issue, Gilani said: "We think that it can be resolved when
there is a composite dialogue and we can discuss all core
issues."
In an apparent reference to the Indo-US nuclear deal, he
said Pakistan should be granted access to civil nuclear
technology for "regional stability."
"If there is discrimination, there would be no regional
stability," he said. PTI RHL
KAB


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