Dialogue with India key to peace: Pakistan PM
By Awais Saleem, IANSFriday, October 22, 2010
ISLAMABAD - Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani Friday said “dialogue between India and Pakistan holds the key for peace between both the countries”.
“Pakistan has good relations with all its neighbouring countries and the country intends to build upon these foundations even further,” Gilani said talking to foreign journalists based here, and argued “Pak-Iran gas pipeline project bears testimony to this fact”.
“Peace in Pakistan is directly linked with peace in Afghanistan,” the prime minister said, adding that the “war on terror” being fought by the American and NATO troops against the Taliban militants in Afghanistan has a direct backlash in Pakistan’s northwestern and other areas in the form of terrorist strikes.
“Pakistan is a responsible atomic power and has the capacity to overcome all challenges, which it is confronting at the moment”, the prime minister said.
Gillani answered questions related to various issues including allegations of corruption against his government and its confrontation with the judiciary.
The Pakistan Peoples Party-led government has been facing criticism for charges of corruption and incompetence of its foreign policy in the wake of US pressure for more action against militants in the restive tribal belt, particularly north Waziristan.
(Awais Saleem can be contacted at ians.pakistan@gmail.com)
