- News>
- Asia
Pak ready to work with Vajpayee for peace
Islamabad, Dec 08: Pakistan today accused India of `blocking` its readmission into the Commonwealth but said it would continue to work with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to carry forward the current peace process.
"We are ready to work with any government in India. Yes,
we would like to work with Vajpayee. If your prognosis is
correct, then we will work with Vajpayee. Most important thing
is that we should work for lasting peace in the region,"
Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan told reporters
here.
He was replying to a question whether Islamabad preferred
to work in future with Vajpayee and BJP, which has emerged as
the front-runner to win next year's general elections going by
the outcome of the recent assembly polls.
The spokesman said Pakistan hoped that the current
ceasefire on the Indo-Pak border was "sustainable".
Attacking India, he said it "played a negative part which
proved decisive in preventing Pakistan's return" to the
54-nation body at the Commonwealth summit in Nigeria.
Khan claimed that many countries including UK and
Australia supported Pakistan's readmission.
He, however, later admitted that Pakistan's admission
became more difficult as it was linked to the readmission of
Zimbabwe and said despite this, it was not contemplating
quitting the Commonwealth.
Pakistan was suspended in 1999 after a military coup
which brought Pervez Musharraf to power.
Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon said in the
Nigerian capital Abuja that a special ministerial committee
dealing with Pakistan concluded on Thursday that despite some
progress, further reforms were needed before its re-entry.
"These issues are still outstanding, the fact that
President Musharraf is also the general of the army and
secondly, the authority he gave himself to dismiss parliament
and the government," McKinnon had said.
Bureau Report