LAHORE, March 18: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz will continue with its 1998 policy on relations with India, but with greater resolve.
This was stated by party’s deputy secretary-general Ahsan Iqbal while briefing a delegation of senior US journalists from electronic and print media about PML-N policies here on Monday.
Senator Pervaiz Rashid, Anusha Rehman and Tariq Fatemi were also present during the briefing at the PML-N secretariat.
“The 1998 policy had set the two countries on the road to normalisation [of relations] through a composite dialogue resulting in then Indian PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s Lahore visit and signing a historic declaration thereafter,” Iqbal said.
The declaration contained a roadmap for the resolution of disputes between the two countries, he asserted.
The party, he said, would pursue a similar policy, but with greater resolve, ensuring that the relations were based on mutual respect and interests.
To a question about withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan, the journalists were told that the PML-N stood for an independent and sovereign Afghanistan free from foreign influence.
Iqbal emphasized that international community should not repeat the mistakes made after the departure of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.
He pointed out that peace and stability in the two neighbouring countries was inextricably linked and that explained why his party favoured a peace process in Afghanistan that was owned and led by Afghanistan.
He told them that America’s post-9/11 policies fuelled anti-US feelings in Pakistan when a military dictator was supported by the US administration. He said that both Pakistan and the US had interdependencies and sustainable relations between the two countries could be built on a win-win approach through authentic diplomacy, which relies on bilateralism and mutualism.
The party has already formulated a strategy to create opportunities for the youth to keep them away from the message of militants and bring them into the mainstream through educational, social, administrative and economic measures.
The visiting journalists were also briefed about the performance of the Punjab government.
