ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari Wednesday said Pakistan wanted to have a constructive, sustained and result-oriented process of engagement with India and was committed to resolve all outstanding issues peacefully and in a just manner.

The president also expressed hope that the resumed dialogue process would move forward in the spirit of Thimpu ad Mohali meetings of the prime ministers of Pakistan and India.

He expressed these views during his meeting with Pakistan's High Commissioner designate to India, the former foreign secretary Salman Bashir here at the Presidency.

The president said it was time that the two countries work together for the betterment of their people.

He said socio economic underdevelopment continued to haunt people for over sixty years and it was important to find peaceful solutions to the outstanding issues so as to divert resources to the improvement of socio economic conditions.

The president said Pakistan wanted an uninterrupted and uninterruptible dialogue process and was committed to resolve all the outstanding issues in a peaceful and just manner.

The president expressed satisfaction over the progress made so far in the resumed dialogue process and called for the need to make the talks more productive and result oriented.

He also expressed satisfaction over the progress being made to normalise bilateral trade relations.

He expressed the hope that signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Indian Trade Promotion Organisation and Trade Development Authority of Pakistan would help promote trade activities for the benefit of the people of the two countries.

“We hope that the trade normalisation process would provide level playing field to the business communities of the two countries,” the president said.

The president also lauded the services of Salman Bashir as former foreign secretary and expressed hope that his appointment as high commissioner would help in further taking forward the process of normalisation between the two countries.

Bashir thanked the president for reposing confidence in him and assured that he would work to the best of his abilities in serving the country and for promotion of good friendly relations of the two neighbours.