Political will paving way for improved ties with India, says Sherry Rehman

Islamabad, May 31 : A key PPP leader and member of the Gilani government in Islamabad, Sherry Rehman has said that the newly-elected PPP government had already jump-started the fourth round of the composite dialogue with India earlier this month.

She said that after the restoration of democracy there was a political will on the part of Pakistan to deal with India for better relations.

"When there is political will there is always a way forward. We have come to agreements on fast-tracking communication links, consular access, trade expansion, exchange of information, and have begun to lay down a blueprint for a joint anti-terrorism mechanism," she said.

She said that slain PPP leader and former premier Benazir Bhutto had laid the foundation of the composite dialogue process currently going on with India.

Sherry said in fact it was Benazir's process of composite dialogue with India, laid down in 1988, which is now internationally flagged as the only model that profits from both the democracy and the peace dividend for the one-fifth of humanity that dwells in South Asia.

"Today, on both our eastern and western borders we stand committed to this vision of peace, trade and social accommodation," the Daily Times quoted Sherry as saying in her speech at the Socialist International Asia-Pacific Committee meeting.

Sherry, the Information and Broadcasting Minister, said that Benazir's assassination at the hour of her greatest triumph had reshaped the entire history of the country and was indeed a reflection of the underlying conflicts that beset the strategic equations in this region.

She said that despite a decade wasted on curbing political space for the progressive forces in Pakistan, the population has mandated a return to Benazir's vision for reconciliation.

ANI