Premier wants peace process to move ahead
By Ashgar Ali Mubarak

ISLAMABAD—‘Located at the confluence of three important regions of Asia, Pakistan is using its unique geo strategic location to promote economic cooperation, and is acting as an anchor of peace and stability to the region’, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said.
Talking to the Deputy Foreign Minister of Italy Mr. Gianni Vernetti who called on him at the PM’s House Friday, the Prime Minister said Pakistan values its relationship with Italy and the two countries are working for growth and development in the world The Prime Minister appreciated Italian interest and cooperation in facilitating market access to Pakistan within the European Union (EU) and Italy and emphasized the need for more market access for the developing countries.
“Increased market access creates sustainable development in developing countries and needs to be expended and encouraged,” the Prime Minister said. The Prime Minister said Pakistan desires to see progress in the peace process with India and wants an early settlement of all outstanding issues with India including the core issue of Jammu and Kashmir. He said that sustainable peace in South Asia will be possible only after the resolution of Kashmir issue in line with wishes and aspirations of the people of Kashmir and acceptable to the three parties to the issue; Pakistan, India and the people of Kashmir.
Reiterating the need for tangible progress on the Kashmir issues, the Prime Minister emphasized the need for taking bold decision to achieve progress and said that composite dialogue process should move from dispute management to dispute resolution. He said while headways have been made on CBMs, substantive dispute resolution is not making the desirable progress. He said the proposals of self-governance and demilitarization of Kashmir made by President General Musharraf can form the basis of a meaningful dialogue and final settlement of the issue. All parties involved in the Kashmir issue need to show commitment, leadership will and magnanimity to solve the issue, the Prime Minister added.
Talking about Afghanistan, the Prime Minister said the fundamental principal that drives our Afghan policy is that Pakistan wants to see peace, and development in Afghanistan and is contributing to its reconstruction. The events in Afghanistan have a spill over affect and impact Pakistan in a substantive way, the Prime Minister said. The Prime Minister said that the world needs to focus more on ensuring sustainable peace in the region. He said more needs to be done for creating economic opportunities for the people of Afghanistan to bring prosperity and hope for the future.
The Prime Minister said Pakistan is fighting against terrorism out of conviction and in our national interest. Talking of the economic turnaround achieved by the country, the Prime Minister said Pakistan’s economy was in dire states seven years ago. It has come a long way out of the economic wilderness and now the economy is thriving. The size of the economy and per capita income doubled duration the last seven years which indicates improvement in the average level of prosperity and average standard of living in the country. The economic stability has restored the investors’ confidence and investments are all times high contributing to employment generation and poverty alleviation, the Prime Minister said. Gianni Vernetti said Italy attaches great importance to its relationship with Pakistan and desires to strengthen cooperation between the two countries in a host of areas and the five MOUs signed between Pakistan and Italy are a manifestation of that desire.
He said Italy desires to enhance cooperation with Pakistan in the field of education. It will assist Pakistan in setting up a technical university. Also, Italy will provide 500 postdoctoral fellowships to Pakistani scholars.
He said Italy and Pakistan share common vision on important international issues and Italy thinks Pakistan is playing an important role in the regional stability which ultimately impacts the world stability.
Talking of the UN reforms process, he said Italy supports the UN reforms process to make the organization more suitable for the interdependent world of today.
The meeting was attended among others by Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar, Ambassador of Italy in Islamabad Mr. Roberto Mazzotta and senior officials. Agencies Add: Talking to the Deputy Foreign Minister of Italy, Gianni Vernetti
called on him here at the PM House, the Prime Minister said Pakistan values its relationship with Italy and the two countries are working for growth and development in the world. He appreciated Italian interest and cooperation in market access to Pakistan within the European Union (EU) and Italy and emphasized the need for more market access for the developing countries, “Increased market access creates sustainable development in developing countries and needs to be expended and encouraged” he added.
The Prime Minister said Pakistan desires to see progress in the peace process with India and wants an early settlement of all outstanding issues with India including the core issue of Jammu and Kashmir. He said that sustainable peace in South Asia will be possible only after the resolution of Kashmir issue in line with the wishes and aspirations of the people of Kashmir and acceptable to the three parties to the issue; Pakistan, India and the people of Kashmir.
Reiterating the need for tangible progress on the Kashmir issue, the Prime Minister emphasized the need for taking bold decision to achieve progress and said that composite dialogue process should move from dispute management to dispute resolution.
He said while headways have been made on CBMs, substantive dispute resolution is not making the desirable progress.
He said the proposals of self-governance and demilitarization of Kashmir made by President General Pervez Musharraf can form the basis of a
meaningful dialogue and final settlement of the issue.
All involved in the Kashmir issue need to show commitment, leadership will and magnanimity to solve the issue, the Prime Minister added.
Talking about Afghanistan, the Prime Minister said the fundamental principle that drives Islamabad’s Afghan policy is that Pakistan wants to see peace, and development in Afghanistan and is contributing to its reconstruction.
events in Afghanistan have a spill over effect and impacts Pakistan in a substantive way, he added.
The Prime Minister said that the world needs to focus more on ensuring sustainable peace in the region. He said more needs to be done for creating economic opportunities for the people of Afghanistan to bring prosperity and hope for the future.
T e Prime Minister said Pakistan is fighting against terrorism out of conviction and in its national interest.
Talking of the economic turnaround achieved by the country, the Minister said Pakistan’s economy was in dire states seven years ago. It has come a long way out of the economic wilderness and now the economy is thriving.