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India,Pakistan restoring ties
Updated: 2003-12-31 06:50
NEW
DELHI: Relations between India and Pakistan have moved to qualitatively new
levels since Indian Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee extended his hand of friendship
to Pakistan on April 18.
With a positive response coming from Pakistani
Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, the two sides moved in the direction
of first restoring full diplomatic ties. Shiv Shankar Menon, India's Ambassador
to China and Aziz Ahmed Khan, an old India hand and Pakistan Foreign Office
spokesman, took charge of their respective diplomatic missions in Islamabad and
New Delhi.
On July 11, the Delhi-Lahore bus service was re-started and
brought with it a flood of emotions from people on both sides.
Noor, a
2-year-old Pakistani baby with a heart ailment, earned love and affection from
all over India. Weeks later, after successful surgery in Bangalore, south India,
she returned to Pakistan with her grateful and happy parents.
India
quickly announced it would offer medical treatment to 20 ailing Pakistani
children and meet all costs. The Indian Government later announced another 20
children would be similarly treated.
Choosing to adopt a step-by-step
approach aimed first at enhancing people-to-people contacts rather than go in
for summit-level talks, India followed up its peace initiatives with proposals
announced on October 22.
These include restoration of cricket matches and
other sporting links, bus service between Srinagar in India-controlled Kashmir
and Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, bus or rail link between
Khokrapar in Rajasthan of India and Munnabao in Sindh province of Pakistan,
issuance of visas in cities other than the two capitals, permitting citizens
above 65 years of age to cross Wagah border on foot and launching of a ferry
service between the port cities of Mumbai, India and Karachi,
Pakistan.
Indo-Pakistani relations improved further when the two nations'
respective armies agreed to stop firing across the border as of midnight
November 25. The move marked the first full and formal ceasefire between the two
sides since 1989.
At present Indian Airlines and Pakistan International
Airlines are planning to resume their flights in the new year which were
suspended in the aftermath of a terrorist attack on Parliament on December 13,
2001.
This paves the way for Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee to fly
directly to Islamabad for the January 4-6 South Asian Association for Regional
Co-operation summit instead of taking a long detour.
(Xinhua)
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