Jammu: National Conference MLA Mian Altaf Ahmed on Tuesday welcomed External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's two-day visit to Islamabad to attend a multilateral conference, saying that dialogues between India and Pakistan was the need of the hour to resolve "long pending disputes".


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"This visit will be fruitful for both centuries to settle their long pending disputes, this visit was the need of the hour and we welcome it," Altaf said here today.


He said that after a long gap, the visit of an External Affairs Minister to Pakistan once again proved that dialogue is the only way to resolve all the outstanding disputes.


Altaf, who is also a well known Gujjar leader said that the leadership of India and Pakistan must address the requirements of the future rather than focusing on the hangover of the past.


He said that there is a dire need of constructive engagement that can reduce the level of mistrust in both countries.


The senior NC leader said that in the border areas of Jammu, Kathua, Samba and Rajouri and Poonch districts people have faced tremendous problems due to cross border firing.


He suggested that the dialogue process should become a continuous process, because it was the only viable way to resolve the all long pending disputes.


"Both the countries should decide that it was time to change the environment, the narrative and the mindset and to start investing in friendship, trust-building and serious mature relations with each other rather than investing in hostility and animosity which has always resulted into disastrous consequences for the people of the two countries especially in Jammu and Kashmir," he said.