Time to resume composite Indo-Pak dialogue: Musharraf

Islamabad, Dec. 24: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, who hopes to have a one-to-one meeting with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee during next week’s SAARC Summit, said it was time to resume composite dialogue on Kashmir and other issues as the two nations have played their role in normalising ties by initiating a series of confidence building measures.

"The environment has been created, we played our role and they (the Indians) also played their role. Now the way forward, certainly, is starting a composite dialogue, and this composite dialogue must include Kashmir," he said while addressing the annual reception dinner of Pakistani Americans Political Action Committee at Rawalpindi on Tuesday night.

Referring to the CBMs, he said Pakistan took "strong" decisions like declaring ceasefire on the Line of Control and bringing forth the resumption of air links and overflights.

"It was our magnanimity, it was our spirit of developing confidence for the sake of peace and for sake of harmony in the relations," he said while pointing out that India lost "heavily" due to Pakistan’s ban on Indian over-flights.

Pakistan would encourage the recent "rapprochement and thaw and we will go more than half the way to encourage it.

This is my message to the Indians", he was quoted as saying by the official media.

Musharraf said that he looks forward to addressing the issue of moving ahead from this "good start" when Vajpayee visits Pakistan "because we are at a start point and this is a beginning". (PTI)