LAHORE: Former foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri has said the late Indian premier Dr Manmohan Singh will be remembered in history as a man who devoted himself to the improvement of bilateral relations between the two countries.

Manmohan Singh passed away on Thursday. He was 92.

Recalling fond memories of his association with Mr Singh, Mr Kasuri said on Friday that the creation of a congenial atmosphere in the entire Saarc region best exemplified by Singh statement that “I look forward to the day when it would be possible to have breakfast in Amritsar, lunch in Lahore and dinner in Kabul”.

Kasuri said he was lucky to be a part of a process in which unprecedented progress was made during the peace process between the two counties and when people to people contacts were enhanced tremendously resulting in the creation of mutual trust between the two governments which enabled them to even produce the blue print of a possible framework for the solution of Jammu & Kashmir.

He said although the process had begun during the period when president Musharraf and BJP PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee led the two respective governments, there is absolutely no doubt that Dr Singh put his heart and soul in carrying the process forward.

Mr Kasuri recollected that Manmohan Singh expressed his strong desire to visit his birth place Gah, in Chakwal district. He said he assured Dr Singh that he would be accorded a warm welcome in Pakistan in recognition of his services to the cause of peace. He hoped that one day it would be possible for his wife Ms Gursharan Kaur and other members of his family to visit Dr Singh’s birth place.

Published in Dawn, December 28th, 2024