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Giving up talks to empower extremists: Qasoori
LAHORE: On the eve of Indo-Pak foreign ministers meeting slated to take place in Islamabad, former Foreign Minister Khursheed Mehmood Qasoori Tuesday urged both the countries not to give up the path of talks, as it would empower terrorists to veto their relations.Kasuri, who served as Foreign Minister under President Pervez Musharraf's regime, believes that Pakistan-based terrorists want to incite a war between India and Pakistan.
"Terrorists in both countries are striking for their own agenda and one of the agenda, in case of Pakistani terrorist, is a desire to not just disrupt relations, but if they could cause war between the two countries they would be very happy," Qasoori told media.
He further said: "Al Qaeda wishes to wage a war between India and Pakistan and if they can understand advantage of their actions, why can't our politicians understand the advantages of cooperation."
Qasoori also said that terrorists are well organized and "we should not underestimate them."
Mentioning about the recent spate of violence unfolding in Pakistan, he said that terrorism is an ever-spreading phenomena and both countries should cooperate to fight it.
"There are terrorist strikes within Pakistan, there are terrorist strikes within India, all of it cannot be laid on the door of the Kashmiris or Hizbul Mujahideen or Lashkar-e-Toiba, it is a phenomena which is spreading that only points out necessity for Pakistan and India to cooperate with each other," Qasoori stressed.
"I have no doubt if we would cooperate, the state of our relations would be better and we will be able to deal with terrorism effectively," he added.
Saying that current democratic dispensation has limitations in dealing with the rising tide of terrorism, he said: "This government also wants good relations with India and I have no doubt on that score. I know what the Foreign Minister and President Asif Ali Zardari has on more than one occasion indicated their desire to improve relations with India, so I don't doubt."
He further said: "I don't think government of Pakistan is willingly lenient on terrorism. They have tried to arrest a lot of people in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks case and also arrested Hafeez Saeed."
Qasoori claimed that during the Musharraf regime both countries were close to clinching a solution to vexed Kashmir issue and all the hard work on the issue was almost completed between the two governments at that point of time.
He is hopeful that talks between Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers which begins on
July 15 in Islamabad will be positive and could produce achievable outcomes.
Courtesy www.Geo.tv