Zardari says no handing over Mumbai suspects to India

K J M Varma
Beijing, Jul 10 (PTI) Pakistan President Asif Ali
Zardari on Saturday ruled out handing over the perpetrators of
the Mumbai attacks to India but said the "non-state actors"
who derailed the Indo-Pak rapprochement will "hopefully" be
brought to justice in his country.
Zardari, who concluded a five-day visit to China, told
the state-run CCTV in an interview that Pakistanis involved in
the Mumbai attacks cannot be handed over to India as there was
no extradition treaty between the two countries.
"I do not think it works like that between two
nations. There has to be bilateral treaties of that sort which
do not exist between us. But we are trying those people in
Pakistan. Hopefully we will bring the offenders to justice,"
he said.
He said the non-state actors who attacked Mumbai had
succeeded in derailing the India-Pak peace process, but hoped
India's "mature democracy" would show "foresight" in taking
forward the resumed talks.
"I will remind you that when the incident of Bombay
took place my Foreign Minister was in Delhi trying to sign a
treaty with the Indians for a rapprochement, in that we had
the concept of fighting terrorists together also," he said.
However, the "non-state actors" managed to stall it
for some time, he said.
"Now I think it is back on track and hopefully will go
forward," he said, insisting that Pakistan wants to be friends
with all its neighbours.
"India is (our) neighbour, (a) large neighbour. We are
from the same South Asia (background). Hopefully we both work
it out in a mature fashion and come together," he said.
He said Pakistan, as a "younger democracy" was always
willing to appreciate India's "mature democracy" and expects
the latter to have "a mature posture and foresight better than
ours".
"But in any case we will do our part to make sure that
the future for the coming generations is better that the one
we inherited," he said.
Zardari, however, refused to give a clear response on
Pakistan's opposition to India having a more active role in
Afghanistan.
He merely said Afghanistan is a sovereign country and
"I am not in a position to encourage or discourage".
There has been concern in Pakistan over India's
growing influence in Afghanistan.
Asked if Pakistan believed the US was adopting double
standards in trying to have a relationship with both India and
Pakistan and whether Islamabad was not comfortable with this,
Zardari said: "we compliment that (triangular) relationship".
He pointed out that Pakistan did not oppose India's
civil nuclear deal with the US. (MORE) PTI