Pakistan and India should end disputes through talks: Bilawal

ISLAMABAD/ SUKKUR: Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said solution to problems between Pakistan and India is possible through talks, so both the nuclear powers should end the dispute through talks. “The government also offered talks but India rejected it,” he said in an interview to a private TV channel.

He said the whole world raises its voice on terrorist incidents, and all the leaders of Pakistan, including the president and prime minister, have condemned terrorism.

He said India has raised the issue of blocking water. “No country has taken such aggressive decisions on blocking water in the past. When I was the foreign minister, India had also tried to challenge the Indus Waters Treaty, but it failed in its goal because its case on the Indus Waters Treaty is very weak,” he said. He said that there have been wars all over the world, but there are international laws, and according to them, water cannot be stopped even in the event of a war between two countries. India has exposed itself by taking such an aggressive step, as their target is innocent Pakistanis.

“Pakistan has responded to Indian actions, and we fully support the decisions taken by the government,” he said. He said if India decides to terminate the Indus Waters Treaty, then Pakistan will also respond fully. «Whether the Simla Agreement or the Indus Waters Treaty, these should remain. Whether it is occupied Kashmir or terrorism in Pakistan, India›s case is weak,” he said.

Pakistan and India are nuclear powers, there will be efforts at the global level to prevent the matter from moving ahead, he said.

Bilawal Bhutto said that India held an All Parties Conference, in which they admitted security failures. He said the prime minister will decide to call an All-Party Conference.

Bilawal said that he convinced the prime minister on his reservations regarding more canals on the Indus River. The prime minister has called a meeting of the Council of Common Interests and the Sindh government has also sent the proposal to CCI. Therefore, if there is no consensus in the CCI, then there will be no canals on the Indus. He said the PPP›s position from day one was that there would be no more canals on the Indus River.

Meanwhile, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, along with Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, visited various villages, including Nachanpur and Tamachani, and inspected houses being built for flood survivors under the Sindh Peoples Housing for Flood Affectees initiative.

The PPP chairman interacted with the artisans of Ali Wahan village. “We used to build houses for others; today, we have built our own houses,” artisans of the village told Bilawal. The women told him about their embroidery skills and those who had got ownership rights of their houses showed the documents to the PPP chairman.

Bilawal also visited the houses being built under the Sindh Peoples Housing for Flood Affectees initiative in Tamachani village. Skilled women of the village informed the PPP chairman about their skills. Bilawal was briefed that more than 80,000 houses are being built in Pano Aqil, Rohri, Saleh Pat, New Sukkur and Sukkur City under the initiative.