Kasuri pushes for opening Pakistani Consulate in Jinnah House

Mumbai: Pakistan's former Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri on Tuesday said he will continue to push for opening a Pakistani Consulate in Jinnah House.

He also favoured reopening of the Indian Consulate in the port city of Karachi in Pakistan.

"When I was the External Affairs Minister (2002-07), I worked towards starting a Pakistani Consulate at Jinnah House. I will continue to make efforts in realising this goal.

"Similarly, Indian Consulate should be re-opened in Karachi," he said after visiting the Mumbai home of Pakistan's founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah in the upscale Malabar Hill.

The Pakistan Government had closed down the Indian Consulate in Karachi in 1995.

"I came here as a messenger of peace but faced protests yesterday. However, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis gets credit for providing me adequate security and ensuring nothing untoward happened to me.

"There were three people who worked for peace between India and Pakistan - Mahatma Gandhi, Jinnah and Dilip Kumar. So I visited places connected with them," said Kasuri, who was in Mumbai for the launch of his book, 'Neither a Hawk nor a Dove: An Insider's Account of Pakistan's Foreign Policy'.

"New generation is not aware of a pact signed between Jinnah and Tilak (at Lucknow in 1916 as representatives of Congress and Muslim League)," he said.

The pact had paved the way for Hindu-Muslim cooperation in the Khilafat movement and Mahatma Gandhi?s non-cooperation movement from 1920.