Pak High Commissioner wants 'amicable' solution to Kashmir, Siachen

Bashir also urged Indian government should resolve issue concerning visa for businessmen

Pakistan High Commissioner Salman Bashir today said his country is open for continuation of talks and wants to “amicably” issues concerning Kashmir, Siachen and a relaxed visa regime.

"As far as Pakistan is concerned, Pakistan wants that all issues with India are settled amicably. These include some political issues, Kashmir issue, Siachen issue. These are very important issues, which need to be resolved through dialogue," Pakistan High Commissioner to India Salman Bashir told reporters here.     

Bashir also added and urged that the Indian government should resolve the issue concerning visa for businessmen.

Meantime, later during the day the Indian government started granting visa on arrival for Pakistani senior citizens. India had stalled this facility following the killing of Indian soldier on the Line of Control (LoC). Last month, India had put on hold the proposed group tourist visa facility to Pakistani.

"We hope that the dialogue will continue and we look forward to further meetings between the two countries," Bashir added.

With recent tensions brewing between both the nuclear-armed neighbours, the momentums of talks for liberalizing trading relations between both countries have slackened.

While Pakistan has been dithering to grant most-favoured nation (MFN) trade status to India, it has also not expanded cross-border trade through the Attari-Wagah border.  During the last meeting between India’s commerce secretary SR Rao and his Pakistani counterpart Munir Qureshi in September last year, it was decided that once Pakistan expands trade on the Attari-Wagah border, the Indian side would bring down its sensitive list of items by 30% that Pakistan will not be allowed to export under the South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA).

But failure to adhere to the deadline of December 2012 to grant MFN or non-discriminatory status to India by Pakistan have soured business sentiments further.