'India's rigid approach has resulted in deadlock'

ISLAMABAD: Former Pakistan High Commissioner to India Aziz Ahmed Khan has claimed that India's 'rigid approach' has prevented in achieving breakthrough on bilateral issues including Siachen and Sir Creek.

While the Composite Dialogue process has progressed soothly, Aziz said the 'rigid approach' of India has resulted in deadlock on several issues.

In his first comments after his return from India, Khan said had the Indian side shown flexibility, disputes pertaining to Siachen, Sir Creek Channel and Wullar Barrage and Tulbul Navigation Project would have been settled.

However, he said the deadlock was no reason to be disappointed because talks were still on despite the sensitive nature of relationship between the two countries and the progress made in last three years could not be called 'meaningless'.

The former envoy also advocated a quiet diplomacy between Pakistan and India to deal with incidents of terrorism specially in Jammu and Kashmir.

He said serious cooperation was needed between the two countries to address the issue.

"The cooperation in this connection should not be published," he said while addressing a conference 'Indo-Pak Dialogues: Progress, Constraints & Prospects' in Lahore on Wednesday.

Khan, whose tenure coincided with the commencement of peace process in 2004, said a four-point proposal by President
Pervez Musharraf to resolve Kashmir was finding support in New Delhi.

Musharraf's options had infused a new life into the settlement of the Kashmir issue which also emphasised interaction between Kashmiri leaders on both sides of the LoC, Aziz said.

He also admitted that Pakistan sought United States influence to initiate talks with India after the Indo-Pak relations touched a low ebb following the attack on the Indian parliament.

Aziz advocated lifting the four decade-old ban on screening Indian films in Pakistan theatres."Indian movies are not allowed in Pakistani cinemas while these movies are seen in Pakistan before their official releases in India. We could
benefit a lot from having joint production".

Such a step would go in favour of Pakistan, its film industry and artists, he said adding the step would help promote joint production ventures and the national cinema would be able to revive its past glory.

Khan also sought liberalising visa restrictions, saying the two countries should allow tourist visas instead of restricting visitors to certain cities.

Tourism between both the countries could only be promoted provided there was a visit-visa regime. "If we want to promote tourism we will have to look at it but there are certain considerations too".

He said the track II diplomacy, which involved political and influential people from both sides has worked wonders as the numbers of people visiting India and Pakistan has increased.

Aziz also advocated improvement of trade relations between the two countries, saying Pakistan and India had great scope and potential for trade, as evidenced by the ongoing informal trade.

Islamabad was prepared to confer on India MFN status if it offered Pakistan a liberal taxation regime, he said.