No love lost for Hafiz Saeed: FM Hina to NDTV
09 September, 2012
ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar has said that there's no love lost for Hafiz Saeed in Pakistani government and he is not a crony of the establishment.
While interviewing to an Indian TV channel, she said that Pakistan will welcome any evidence against Saeed that can stand in court.
She stated, "any evidence specifically which can be held in the court of law will help, and we have no love lost for any of these individuals whatsoever."
"Terrorism was mantra of the past, terrorism is not the mantra of future," said Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar on Friday ahead of her talks with Indian counterpart SM Krishna, asking India to see the Mumbai terror attack trial "realistically" and not "emotionally".
She also indicated that the new visa agreement would be inked during Krishna's visit.
Asserting that Pakistan has sent some very "serious signals" in viewing India in different light and on moving with India in various sectors, for instance trade relations, Khar said in an interview that by doing this her country was "breaking away from many positions we have held".
Making a strong pitch for the resumed dialogue process to continue, she said, moving forward would mean "Pakistan and India being able to sit around the dialogue table and convert the baby steps into medium-sized strides, which I think is already happening.
Commenting on the Kashmir issue, she said it will be wrong of us to imagine that the issue of Jammu and Kashmir for instance, does not exist between the two countries.
Hina also said that India needs to do more to provide more evidence and information about his links to the 26/11 attacks. This will allow courts in Pakistan to take a decision on trying Saeed, she said, adding that if Islamabad's request for a Pakistani judicial commission to visit India and examine witnesses in the 26/11 probe is agreed to, then the trial would get momentum.
Hina said Pakistan could also bring up the terror attack on the cross-border Samjhota Express train in which its citizens died, but didn't want 'tit-for-tat politics'.
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