Karzai, Aziz look to leave past behind

He said neither country should allow the future to be held hostage to past problems and said Islamabad had shown its willingness to ‘‘think out of the box’’. But he couldn’t entirely shake off the past as he spent considerable time emphasising the centrality of the ‘‘Kashmir dispute’’ in the ongoing Indo-Pak peace process. ‘‘Kashmir is not about territory or ideologies…it is a human problem. Kashmiris have been denied their right to self-determination,’’ he said, adding that to bracket the Kashmir problem as a ‘‘subset’’ of global terrorism is ‘‘disingenuous’’ and ‘‘dangerous’’.

Aziz came in for aggressive questioning from poet-lyricist Javed Akhtar, who said dividing Kashmir meant legitimising the two-nation theory; would Pakistan accept the millions of Indian Muslims. Aziz, instead, assured him Pakistan was keeping a watch on how Muslims were treated in India. On a more positive note, Aziz pushed for an early breakthrough for a gas pipeline from Iran to India through Pakistan.