Billing India as Pakistan's most “important neighbour,” Pakistan Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani on Wednesday said New Delhi would have to play a more positive and accommodating role and respond to Islamabad's legitimate security concerns.
Addressing a seminar on de-radicalisation, Mr. Gilani articulated the hope that the ongoing process of comprehensive engagement with India would be fruitful. “Pakistan desires sustained, substantive and result-oriented process of dialogue to resolve all outstanding issues, including the core issue of Jammu and Kashmir.”
Stating that Pakistan would like to resolve all outstanding issues in a peaceful and just manner, Mr. Gilani added that New Delhi would not find Islamabad lacking in will to write a new chapter in bilateral relations, but stressed the need for some accommodation by India.
Mr. Gilani's remarks come close on the heels of the well-received comments made by Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao in a television interview; she had voiced a noticeable change in the way Pakistan viewed terrorism.
In fact, while Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's comment that “Pakistan should leave Kashmir alone” caused some unease here — given that the premier Indian advocate for dialogue said something that could queer the pitch — Ms. Rao's subsequent remarks have served as a salve to the festering relationship.
