New Delhi, jan 28: A visiting key aide of Pakistan Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali on Wednesday said he was carrying a message of peace and goodwill and he was "very optimistic" that "like brothers" the two sides would be able to resolve their outstanding issues.
"I carry a message of peace and goodwill and harmony and looking forward to the composite dialogue that is going to develop in the near future," Atta-ur Rahman, adviser to Jamali on Science and Technology, told reporters after a 30-minute meeting with HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi.

Joshi gifted a replica of Taj Mahal to Rahman with a suggestion that he should keep it in his office and illuminate it to give the moonlight splendour.

"To me it symbolises love, the love that exists between the two countries. I take it in that spirit," Rahman, who has the status of a federal minister, said when asked what the gift symbolised in Indo-Pak relations.

Observing that he was happy to be in Delhi, Rahman said: "I was born here. My grandfather was the Vice Chancellor of the Delhi University".

Rahman, who is here to give a lecture on chemistry, said there were lot of opportunities for bilateral cooperation between India and Pakistan in education and science and technology.

"If we have to eradicate poverty and if our two countries have to move ahead, it has to be through education," he said.
Bureau Report