Pakistan engaging India on all issues with positive approach to mend ties: Gilani

Islamabad, Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said the country has tried to transform its relationship with India by approaching it in a positive manner.

“We have tried to transform this relationship by approaching it in a positive rather than in a traditional manner. Normalising trade with India has been an issue that no previous governments wanted to touch. But we touched it,” The Nation quoted Gilani, as saying.

He also mentioned the resumption of dialogue with India, which covered all issues, including Siachen, Sir Creek, counterterrorism, water, and the most important of all, Kashmir.

Gilani made these statements while addressing the Sixth Convocation of National Defence University (NDU).

He also stressed that only a politically stable country can achieve the objectives of its foreign policy.

“The strength of a country is measured not in terms of its ability to impose unilateral decisions, but to create a win-win situation,” he said.

“We successfully evolved consensus on all national policies. Political pluralism, in my view, is a necessary condition for success of any democratic polity. It provides the basis for creating harmony within different federating units with different languages, background and local cultures,” he added.

“The task of national building, I believe, needs patience and perseverance,” he further said.