Problems between India, Pakistan are psychological rather than logical: Husain Haqqani

Naveen Kapoor

Washington D.C., Sept. 21 (ANI): Pakistan's former envoy to the United States, Husain Haqqani, on Monday expressed doubts over whether talks between India and Pakistan would materialise during Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to New York to attend this year's U N General Assembly. He said that the problems between both countries was more psychological than logical.

"India and Pakistan can talk whenever they like. The issue is that will they be able to solve any of their problems. I think that most of the problems between India and Pakistan are psychological and not logical. While I wish both Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Sharif good luck , the question is will there be substantive talks, or will there another round of recrimination," Haqqani told ANI.

With regard to Pakistan presenting a dossier on alleged interference by India in its territory, Haqqani said the dossier should make things clearer rather than furthering a propaganda war.

"It might be a good thing if Pakistan actually offers a dossier that the world can look at to see if there is any truth in the allegations that Pakistan makes. So far, while the Pakistan's alleged involvement with the Kashmiri Jehadi groups is very well documented and accepted by the United Nations, for example, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and Lashkar-i- Taiba have been put on the terrorist list by the UN," he said.

"So far, no such actions have been taken against the groups which Pakistan says that India has been supporting, because there is no evidence. So, let us see if there is any evidence, and then, that will make things clearer, rather than the propaganda war," he added.

Haqqani also said that it was unlikely that the Kashmir issue, which has remained unresolved in the last 67 years, could be solved in six-seven days, and adviced India and Pakistan to build better relations first.