Shahbaz urges trade in talks with Indian team

LAHORE – Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif has said that living standard of the people of India and Pakistan can be improved through establishment of lasting peace between the two countries.
He said this while speaking to a delegation of Indian industrialists, led by Indian Minister for Trade, Industries and Textiles Anand Sharma who participated in “The India Show” at Chief Minister’s Secretariat, here Monday.
The CM said that promotion of trade between Pakistan and India is in the interest of both the countries and meaningful steps should be taken seriously on both sides for this purpose.
He said time has proved that disputes cannot be solved through wars.
There is no doubt in this fact that new avenues of relations can be opened between both the countries through mutual trade, he added.
However, result-oriented efforts are essential for resolving the basic issues between the two countries, he stressed. He said that if these issues were not resolved, they will continue to become big hurdles in Pak-India relations.
Shahbaz Sharif said that poverty, ignorance and diseases are our common enemies and we should allocate resources for their complete elimination. He said that significant progress can be made for establishing durable peace between the two countries through promotion of trade but it is necessary that both the countries move forward like good neighbours. He said that although it is difficult yet is possible.
We have to utilise our resources for improving the living standard of the people because it is a lesson of the history that no-one got anything from wars, he added.
He said we should remember that the countries fighting wars in the past are now achieving new heights of progress and development.
Addressing the meeting, Indian Minister for Trade, Anand Sharma said that we are opening new vistas of cooperation through industry and trade.
He said that both countries need resources for marching forward so that poverty could be eliminated from the region. Besides Senior Advisor Sardar Zulfiqar Khosa, representatives of Pakistani and Indian business community also spoke on this occasion and highlighted the prospects of improving mutual relations through promotion of trade between the two countries.
Indian High Commissioner Shurat Subharwal, High Commissioner of Pakistan in India Shahid Malik, Senior Advisor Sardar Zulfiqar Khosa, Pervaiz Malik, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Mian Mansha, Khawaja Salman Rafique, Hafiz Mian Nauman, President Lahore Chamber of Commerce Irfan Qaiser Shaikh, Syed Yawar Ali, Shahzad Ali Malik, Chief Secretary Punjab Nasir Khosa and Provincial Secretary Health Capt. (Retd) Arif Nadeem  were also present on the occasion.