NEW DELHI: Former Prime Minister and Janata Dal leader V.P. Singh said that India and Pakistan should move away from “conflict and confrontation.” He added that they should work out a strategy on economic cooperation for SAARC countries, as suggested by the body’s Opposition leaders’ conference held at Karachi.
Briefing journalists on his visit to Pakistan to attend the Karachi conference, Singh said the meet did not discuss Kashmir, Babri Masjid or Pakistani abetment to terrorism in Punjab and Kashmir, since the conference was non-official and multilateral.
It was left for the two Governments or the formal body of SAARC nations to take up such issues, Singh said. He added that confidence-building measures needed to be strengthened and that issues could be sorted out one by one.
Singh added that the contentious issues did not crop up even during his informal discussions with his host, PPP leader Benazir Bhutto, or other SAARC Opposition leaders. He pointed out that the two Governments were having a dialogue to sort out the Kashmir problem and the issue of terrorism in Punjab and Kashmir. But expressing his apprehension, he said “Both countries are locked up in-a number of illusions.”
Singh said SAARC countries should neighboring countries access to their markets on preferential notes instead of importing or exporting items which might cost more from other countries. “By talking formally we can come to the core of issues and work together for betterment,” Singh said.
Describing the Karachi meeting as a significant event at a nonofficial level, the former Prime Minister said that the participants emphasized the need for strengthening economic ties among SAARC nations. Pointing towards commonality of problems like poverty, illiteracy and disease. Singh said the Opposition leaders from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India suggested the strengthening of democratic institutions. “We need to be active to create an atmosphere for the healthy functioning of democracy,” he emphasized.
Terming the conference as a “success,” Singh said that there were positive results, “though we could not reach any official agreements.” The conference suggested that to ensure free and fair elections, independent election machinery, free from governmental interference should be set up in all SAARC countries. The conference also underlined the need for impartiality of the head of State and State funding of political parties for research and party workers, training programs.
The former Prime Minister expressed his satisfaction with the admiration that Indian democracy elicited in Pakistan. At the same time, he expressed his concern at the need to protect the new democracies which were in the process of gaining roots.
Among the decisions that the Karachi conference took was to rotate such conferences among SAARC member countries, Singh said.
He said that his party would follow up the results of the conference and would soon set up a study group headed by former External Affairs Minister L.K. Gujral, involving economists and experts to see as to how economic cooperation with SAARC countries could be improved.
In reply to a question about the cancellation of his meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Singh, while not disclosing the reasons for the cancellation, said that after “my main mission was over, I did not make further inquiries.”
Article extracted from this publication >> September 25, 1992
