No development without peace: Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri

I understand that Prime Minister Modi has come to power on the issue of development and is pushing the country's economic agenda.

Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri.

AKISTAN’S FORMER Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri said on Monday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’’s economic and development agenda would not be furthered without peace within India and across its borders. “”I understand that Prime Minister Modi has come to power on the issue of development and is pushing the country’s economic agenda. Let me tell you that for investment to materialise, there has be genuine peace. You will need internal harmony, and peace across external borders,” said Kasuri at the launch of his book, Neither a Hawk, Nor a Dove.

“People in Pakistan have many misapprehensions about Modi,” said Kasuri, but quickly added, “How can a person who has risen through the ranks be without a sense of destiny. My hope is that PM Modi will soon realise that former Indian PM A B Vajpayee’s course was the right course.”

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Claiming that significant progress was made in ensuring peace between the two countries during his tenure as foreign minister, Kasuri said: “It is better not to talk much and let the back channels work out solutions.” Admitting that Pakistan had deployed people in Kashmir, he said: “We even opened camps to withdraw our people from Kashmir”.

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Kasuri reiterated that Delhi and Islamabad would have been able to resolve the Kashmir issue if former PM Manmohan Singh had visited Pakistan in 2006.

With India opposed to third-party talks on Kashmir, Kasuri suggested appointment of five reputed persons from either side to monitor the ground situation.

Earlier in the day, Kasuri said at a press conference, “I came to Mumbai where my father did his law and was imprisoned when he was 19 while participating in the Quit India movement, as I wanted to pay a tribute to this city that I had heard so much about.” He added, “The city has a reputation for being an inclusive city that brings people of South Asia together…”

When asked what message he had for Uddhav Thackeray whose party had organised the protest, Kasuri said, “The right to dissent is inherent in the constitutions of both India and Pakistan. However, this (blackening of the face) is not the way to protest.”

mumbai.newsline@expressindia.com

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