India on Wednesday dismissed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s speech in the National Assembly in Islamabad as an illustration of Pakistan’s inability to move away from terrorism as a State policy.
“[The speech] shows Pakistan’s continued attachment to terrorism,” a source told the media after Mr. Sharif raised the Kashmir issue and alleged that India had refused to engage Pakistan in dialogue.
Pak. PM blames India
In his speech at the Joint Session of the National Assembly, Mr. Sharif said Pakistan sought dialogue with India but blamed New Delhi for not reciprocating. “We have done everything to make India come to the dialogue table, but India did not let it happen. Our efforts were thwarted over and over again. I would like to repeat our stance that we are against war. We want peace in the region. We want to resolve all outstanding disputes through dialogue.”
He, however, reiterated Pakistan’s hardened position on Kashmir and said, “World powers need to ensure that U.N. resolutions on Kashmir should be implemented in letter and spirit.”
The joint session of the National Assembly was called to discuss Pakistan’s response to the “surgical strikes” by India along the Line of Control (LoC) that India announced on September 29, drawing international support in favour of hot pursuit of terrorists. On Wednesday, Germany supported India’s tough stance on cross-border terror.
“Every state has the right to defend itself against international terrorism. When it comes to counter-terrorism, Germany stands side by side with its strategic partner India. We have ongoing bilateral cooperation on counter-terrorism,” said Ambassador of Germany to India Martin Ney in Hyderabad.
Afghanistan development
India reminded the international community on Wednesday that the “scale of violence” in Afghanistan is a hurdle for the country’s development. “The scale of terrorism and violence unleashed against Afghanistan is of a magnitude that simply does not allow for easy project implementation, efficient delivery of assistance or rapid inflow of investments in an economy that has huge resources and obvious potential,” said Minister of State for External Affairs M.J. Akbar at the Brussels Conference on Afghanistan. Hinting at Pakistan’s opposition to grant transit rights to Afghanistan for accessing South Asian markets, Mr. Akbar said Afghanistan was entitled to “full utilisation of transit rights as a member of WTO.” “Those who deny transit hurt Afghanistan’s economy, with negative resonance for our larger region,” Mr. Akbar said.
