'Pak will take constructive approach with India'

Pakistan said on Thursday it will adopt a "positive and constructive" approach to its upcoming talks with India with a view to resolving all outstanding issues, including the Kashmir problem, on the basis of sovereign equality and mutual respect.

Briefing a joint meeting of the standing committees on foreign affairs of the two houses of Parliament, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said, "the resumption of the peace process is an important development but was not an end in itself."

"Pakistan will approach the dialogue process with a positive and constructive mindset with the view to resolving all bilateral issues, including the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, on the basis of sovereign equality and mutual respect," he told the lawmakers. The meeting was convened at Qureshi's request as part of his efforts to evolve national consensus on key foreign policy issues like the peace process with India.

In recent days, Qureshi has held similar meetings with former foreign ministers, ex-foreign secretaries and army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. Following a meeting between Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh on the margins of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit in Bhutan last month, Qureshi and his Indian counterpart S M Krishna spoke on the phone on Tuesday and agreed to meet in Islamabad on July 15.

A statement issued by the Foreign Office quoted Qureshi as saying that the Foreign Secretaries of India and Pakistan will meet here in June to prepare the agenda for the July 15 meeting. He said it was agreed between the two Foreign Ministers that "the Thimphu spirit" should be kept alive. Qureshi also briefed the Parliamentarians about Pakistan's relations with Afghanistan, Iran, China, the US and European Union.

The democratic government has been able to bring about a qualitative change in Pakistan's foreign policy in the last two years, he said. The foreign policy is now firmly aligned to Pakistan's long-term security and development interests, he added. Senator Saleem Saifullah Khan, Chairman of the Senate's standing committee on foreign affairs, emphasised the importance of normal and peaceful relations with all of Pakistan's neighbours.