ISLAMABAD - Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar on Friday said India needs to look at the 26/11 Mumbai attacks 'unemotionally'.
"As far as 26/11 is concerned, we must be able to look at it unemotionally. We would want this issue to be resolved as soon as possible," Hina told Asian News International (ANI) in an exclusive interview.
She emphasised that the two Asian neighbours must now look forward to their relationship rather than contemplating about their past.
"Anything that happened before today is the past, anything that happens from today is going to be the future. Do we want what happened in the past to define what is going to happen tomorrow? The past year has not been a bad year in terms of the messages that have been sent by both countries," said Hina.
"The fact that Mr Krishna attended dinner, which was given by the Permanent Representative in New York where Pakistan was vying for a non-permanent seat in the (UN) Security Council; that may be meaningless to many people, but it sent a very important gesture. How we move forward is more important to me than what happened in the past," she added.
Citing the 1971 war to justify her statement, Hina said: "As 1971 cannot be unemotional for Pakistan. But do we want to remain emotional in judging what our intentions are today. Please do a realistic analysis of what Pakistan can and has done. These are judicial processes, which have to be worked. We understand that a judicial process has to take its time and has to go through the process."
"We are committed to doing whatever we can do. Let me please encourage you not to doubt our intention to put this matter to rest to the satisfaction of the Indians and to the satisfaction of the Pakistanis," she added.
"Terrorism was mantra of the past, terrorism is not the mantra of future," said Hina. She also indicated that the new visa agreement will be inked during Krishna's visit.
Asserting that Pakistan has sent some very ‘serious signals’ in viewing India, Hina said by doing this her country was ‘breaking away from many positions we have held’.
Making a strong pitch for the resumed dialogue process to continue, she said moving forward will mean Pakistan and India being able to sit around the dialogue table and convert the baby steps into medium-sized strides, which I think is already happening, and then big leaps forward and for that we need to change the mindset.
"I am appalled when I am told that terrorism continues to be an issue. Who can tell me that terrorism is not an issue for Pakistan. And this is all old-time (things)..."
The minister said whatever has happened before today is past and we should not miss on opportunities to build cooperation in future.
"I would be very sorry if Pakistan chose to define its identity by hostile relations with India and vice-versa," she said.
She also advocated that the two countries should build on the gains and agreements made in the past on issues like Sir Creek and Siachen.
Meanwhile, in another interview with ND TV, Hina said her government has ‘no love lost’ for Hafiz Saeed or individuals like him. He is not a crony of the Pakistani government, she added.
Hina also said that India needs to do more to provide more evidence and information about his links to the 26/11 attacks. This will allow courts in Pakistan to take a decision on trying Saeed, she said, adding that if Islamabad's request for a Pakistani judicial commission to visit India and examine witnesses in the 26/11 probe is agreed to, then the trial would get momentum.
Hina said Pakistan could also bring up the terror attack on the cross-border Samjhota Express train in which its citizens died, but didn't want ‘tit-for-tat politics’.