Dialogue Onus On India: Pak Army Chief

It’s time for India and Pakistan “to bury the past and move forward,” said Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, the powerful army chief of Pakistan. But he added a familiar caveat: the responsibility for meaningful dialogue rested with India.

Addressing the first Islamabad Security Dialogue, he added: “It is important to understand that without the resolution of the Kashmir dispute through peaceful means, the process will always remain susceptible to derailment, to politically motivated bellicosity.”

A day earlier Prime Minister Imran Khan had made similar remarks, saying India could benefit economically if it could trade through Pakistan to Central Asia. But he also said “India will have to take the first step. Unless they do so we cannot do much.”

The two countries had resolved last month to strictly observe the 2003 ceasefire along the Line of Control in Kashmir. The ceasefire appears to be working for now.