Islamabad: Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah
Mahmood Qureshi on Saturday said he would address American concerns about the Lashker-e-Taiba during an upcoming visit to the US, a day after lawmakers asked the Obama administration to put
more pressure on Islamabad to crack down on the LeT.
Qureshi said he would be willing to provide "any
explanation sought" by American authorities.
"They have a Congressional committee which discussed
(this issue) and people expressed their views. They can do
that, you can't impose restrictions on anyone. But I will be
visiting the US in the near future and I will engage Congressmen and Senators. I will present our views to them," Qureshi said in response to a question during an interaction with reporters in his hometown of Multan.
Gary Ackerman, chairman of the US House Subcommittee
on the Middle East and South Asia, yesterday described the
Pakistan-based terror outfit LeT as a "group of savages" that
ought to be crushed.
He said the LeT was "both tolerated by and connected
to the Pakistani military".
In response to another question about the
normalisation of ties with India, Qureshi said he was willing
to hold talks with his Indian counterpart if such a meeting
resulted in a tangible outcome.
"I have no objection to meeting (my Indian
counterpart) but what is the purpose of such a meeting? If
something comes out of the meeting, I am ready to meet him. I
am ready to go there (for a meeting)," he said.
"If nothing will be achieved by such a meeting, I
don't want to waste my time. I have no desire for a photo
opportunity," Qureshi added.
"I sincerely want an end to tensions affecting ties
and I sincerely want the resumption of the composite dialogue.
I sincerely want an improvement in ties so that we can live
like good neighbours," he said.
India and Pakistan have disputes and they had "decided
on a mechanism to resolve these disputes", he said.
"We should move forward on this. We may not be able to
solve them immediately but we can make progress. There are
many issues on which there are bright chances of progress if
there is political will and sincerity but I am not in favour
of sitting for the sake of sitting and talks for the sake of
talks," Qureshi said.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, March 13, 2010, 18:00