Abdul Basit urges India to reconsider position on dialogue with Pakistan

Nothing that the dialogue between New Delhi and Islamabad has always borne fruit in the past, outgoing Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit on Tuesday said that two hostile neighbors should resume talks, as it is the only solution to restoring peace in the region.

"There is no other option so we have to talk with each other to resolve the problems. Unless the problems are resolved we cannot really establish permanent peace in the region. Whenever we engaged in past, we did produced good results and I am confident sooner or later, the two countries will resume the dialogue process because that is the only way forward," Basit told ANI here.

Basit further divulged that the National Security Advisor's (NSA) of both countries have been in touch with each other to resume structured dialogue between them, adding that this step will make the two to come to the negotiation table.

"There is need for India to reconsider its position. It would be important for Indian foreign secretary to visit Pakistan and talk about talks and finalize the modalities for negotiations," he said.

Basit concluded saying it is time for our India and Pakistan to genuinely introspect as to how they should be moving forward.

Earlier, India had called off maritime security dialogue with Pakistan amid tensions over death sentence being awarded to Kulbhushan Jadhav on charges of spying.

The development came amid tension between the two countries over Jadhav, a former Indian naval officer, being awarded death sentence by a Pakistani military court.

India has said if Jadhav were to be executed, it will be considered as a "premeditated murder".

Jadhav was sentenced to death on April 10 this year after being accused of espionage and working for the India's external intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW). He was arrested from Balochistan on March 3 last year.