Islamabad (NVI): It is time for India and Pakistan to “bury the past and move forward”, Pakistan Army Chief Gen Qamar Bajwa said today, even while harping that the “onus for a meaningful dialogue rested with India.”
Bajwa, whose military uses terrorists to cause violence and bloodshed in Jammu and Kashmir, said that India “will have to create a conducive environment” in Jammu and Kashmir for improvement of ties with Pakistan.
Addressing a conclave in Islamabad, he said, “We are ready to improve our environment by resolving all our outstanding issues with our neighbours through dialogue in a dignified and peaceful manner. We have learnt from the past and are willing to move ahead towards a new future. However, this is contingent on reciprocity.”
He said stable relations between India and Pakistan are the key to unlocking the potential of South and Central Asia by ensuring connectivity between East and West Asia but this potential has remained hostage to the disputes and issues between the two nuclear neighbours.
Ranting about Kashmir, the Pakistan Army Chief said this issue is “obviously at the heart of this” and that “It is important to understand that without the resolution of Kashmir dispute through peaceful means, the process of sub-continental rapprochement will always remain susceptible to derailment due to politically motivated bellicosity.”
He went on to add, “We feel it is time to bury the past and move forward”.
His comments came a day after Prime Minister Imran Khan said that India would have to make the first move to normalise relations with Pakistan but did not specify what he expected New Delhi to do.
India has maintained that it is ready to normalise the bilateral relations but for that Pakistan must end cross-border terrorism. India asserts that talks and terror cannot go together.
It is well known that the cross-border terrorism, which emanates from Pakistan and causes bloodshed in India, is sponsored, nurtured and supported by the Pakistani establishment, particularly its Army and notorious intelligence agency ISI.
