Pakistan High Commissioner to the UK Dr Maleeha Lodhi hoped that the new Indian government would pursue the agreed framework for talks and described the early indications from New Delhi as "all positive."
"We hope that the new Indian government will pursue the agreed framework for dialogue. The early signals are certainly all positive," she told the Defence and Security Forum while giving a talk on the subject of "Pakistan's economic and political prospects," here late Monday.
Maleeha gave the select gathering a detailed briefing on important aspects and reforms introduced in all the fields during last four and half years, to achieve the goal of economic development and political stability. She also dwelt at length on the vital role being played by Pakistan in war against terror and the steps to fight terrorism and eliminate extremism.
The President of the forum, Lady Olga Maitland, Chairman, Major General Patrick Cordingley and others were present on the occasion.
India has always been "our foremost security challenge, also affecting us internally," she said, adding that two years ago the world held its breath as the two South Asian neighbours were poised on the brink of conflict.
"Now we are looking to a peace process between India and Pakistan to resume after the new Indian government has settled in. A road map has been worked out to pursue talks at various levels on a composite agenda," she said.
From Pakistani perspective, it was important that this time the dialogue was sustained and addresses the substance of the Indian occupied Kashmir dispute, she added.
President Pervez Musharraf, she said, had suggested a four step approach to find a political settlement to the Indian occupied Kashmir dispute which was to accept the centrality of the dispute, have a sustained dialogue, identify what is completely unacceptable to the either side and put that aside and to find a solution within the parameters of what is left on the negotiating table to produce a win-win outcome for all sides.
Maleeha said several steps had already been taken to implement a series of CBMs between the two countries.
The cease-fire on the LoC is holding, travel links have been restored, people-to-people contact is being promoted and sporting links have been re-established.
"A viable peace will require political accommodation and an end to violence. On the core issue of Kashmir, we will have to doggedly search for viable solutions. Appropriate conditions will need to be established for this," said Maleeha.
She said all sides agree that this requires an end to violence. Pakistan is committed to ensuring its territory will not be used for terrorist attacks.
"But ending violence also means a halt to violence in Indian occupied Kashmir. The initiative for this must come from the Indian government," said the High Commissioner.
Outlining many steps in this regard, she said Indian occupation troops be withdrawn to the barracks and cantonments and remove other signs of military presence from Kashmiri towns and cities. She called for ending crackdowns and detention of thousands of innocent youth held without charges in Indian occupied Kashmir.
A door is required to be opened to political activity by the entire spectrum of political parties in Kashmir starting with release of political prisoners and giving an access to human rights organisations to Indian occupied Kashmir. She said a peace process should also help establish new security architecture for the region.
"Pakistan has proposed a strategic stability regime whose three interlocking elements are nuclear restraint, conventional arms control measures and the establishment of a political mechanism to resolve bilateral disputes. The proposal is inspired by the desire to avert a destructive arms race in our region," she said.
Pakistan's proposals for reciprocal nuclear and missile restraint include, a bilateral moratorium on further nuclear testing, non-deployment of nuclear capable ballistic missiles, maintenance of nuclear weapons on de-alert status and moratorium on the acquisition and deployment of anti-ballistic missile (ABM) systems, which could destabilise the strategic balance.
The envoy said Pakistan had also proposed a number of other measures to eliminate the risk of accidental or unauthorised use of nuclear weapons and reduce nuclear uncertainty.
Maleeha said Pakistan's vision could not be attained and its strategic goals of economic recovery and good governance could not be realised without peace on its frontiers.
"Instability on our borders affects our ability to achieve peace and economic stability within. That is why we have sought negotiated, peaceful settlement of outstanding disputes with India and have been playing a vital role in helping to stabilise Afghanistan," she said.
On trade, the countries in the region have agreed to Safta. It must be remembered that all free trade areas or customs unions require harmonisation of the trade regimes of all partners to create a level playing field, she said.
Maleeha said of course preferential treatment would need to be given to the least developed South Asian states.
But "we must also address the unfair advantage enjoyed by India which has so far maintained higher tariffs than Pakistan on a number of important items, and continues to provide higher subsidies and domestic support for its agriculture and its manufacturing sectors," she said.
India also retains a host of non-tariff barriers. All these structural features of the Indian trade and economic regime are reflected in the analyses and discussions of the WTO.
These have resulted in calls from the major trading partners for a comprehensive opening up of the Indian trading regimes and elimination of other restrictive policies, she said.
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