Sharif's neighbourhood policy driving ties with India

Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's vision of a friendly neighbourhood has been the driving force for normalisation of relations with India, parliament was told on Tuesday.

Commerce Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan made the remarks while responding to questions in the Senate, the Upper House of bicameral parliament.

Pakistan wants to achieve the objective of friendly neighbourhood by resolution of all the outstanding issues including Kashmir, with India, Radio Pakistan quoted the minister as saying.

He said that the two countries had agreed to restart the comprehensive bilateral dialogue to address all the outstanding issues but the progress is stalled because of the Pathankot terror attack.

To a supplementary question, he said Pakistan has objections to the design of Kishanganga project by India and efforts are being made to address the issue at the level of Indus Basin Commission.

Khan told the House that the government is taking the issue of security of Pakistan International Airline (PIA) offices in abroad seriously and it has taken up the issue of attack on its offices in New Delhi with the Indian government.

Responding to a call attention notice, he said response of the Indian government was positive and they have conveyed that security of PIA offices would be ensured.