Don’t be victims of history, Zardari urges South Asian leaders

ISLAMABAD - The leaders of South Asia should not let the shadows of history impede progress on resolving outstanding issues between them for establishing a durable peace in the region, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari said Wednesday.

There was “a need to look beyond shadows of history and to forge a mutual relationship sans suspicions and mistrust”, Online news agency quoted him as saying during a meeting with former Indian external affairs minister Jaswant Singh, who is here for the release of his book on Pakistan’s founder, Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

“The worst sufferers of the security driven policies for past more than 60 years have been the people of the region,” the president said, adding: “It is time to take up common fight against militancy and poverty that confront our people.”

Zardari’s remarks come a day after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in Washington that India can resume the dialogue with Pakistan on all issues only if it takes “credible steps” to bring the known perpetrators of the Mumbai carnage to justice.

Underscoring India’s growing exasperation with lack of action by Pakistan against 26/11 terrorists, the prime minister stressed that there was no need to give more evidence about the complicity of Lashkar-e-Taiba and its founder Hafiz Saeed in the Mumbai carnage.

“We have said more than once that Pakistan, if it takes credible steps to bring the perpetrators of the horrible crime of 26/11 to book,” Manmohan Singh told journalists at the end of his four-day trip to the US to attend the Nuclear Security Summit.

“…that’s the minimum we expect from Pakistan and if Pakistan does that, we would be very happy to talk to them and beginning talking to them once again on all our issues,” he said.

Manmohan Singh said he ran into his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani twice on the sidelines of the summit, but clarified that there was no serious discussion beyond exchanging pleasantries.

Manmohan Singh was evasive when asked about the possibility of a bilateral meeting with Gilani on the sidelines of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit in Bhutanese capital Thimpu April 28-29.