... aka
Taliban Khan, who who convinced himself that playing cricket qualified him to lead a nuclear-armed nation with severe personality problems...
says his ruling party and the country's influential military want to mend ties and resolve outstanding disputes with arch-foe India.
Khan made the remarks in a speech to open a new border crossing with India in the vast Punjab
1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots....
province on Wednesday. The premier stated that his government and the army were both intent on establishing a "civilized relationship" with India.
"I the prime minister, my political party, the rest of our political parties, our army, all our institutions are all on one page. We want to move forward," Khan said, adding, "If India takes one step forward then we will take two steps forward towards friendship."
Making a strong case for peace, the Pak premier also pointed out that the Kashmire dispute can be resolved only through talks and a healthy respect for humanity.
The cricketer-turned-politician also asserted that only "fools" would speak of war between two nuclear-armed countries like India and Pakistain.
"Everybody loses in a nuclear war. Hatred will take us nowhere," he said.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Khan said that while there has been bad blood between the two countries for years, peace can come about as long as the stakeholders work towards it in all honesty.
"For 70 years, we have been fighting with each other... India points fingers at Pakistain, and Pakistain points fingers at India. There have been mistakes on both sides, but how long must we keep playing this blame-game? Every time we take one step forward, something happens to make us go back two steps," he added.
"We still do not have the resolve to decide that, no matter what, we must improve our ties," he said. "La Belle France and Germany, who have fought so many wars, are now living as neighbors. They have trade ties despite killing thousands of each other's people. But their leaders one day decided that we will break their shackles and they did."
The latest remarks by the premier appear to be another attempt to improve fractious relations with India.
Khan had earlier called on his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi to engage in bilateral efforts to resolve outstanding disputes. Khan called for a meeting between the two nations' foreign ministers on the sidelines of the annual session of the United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
General Assembly in New York in September.
India cancelled the rare meeting between its foreign minister and her Pak counterpart just a day after announcing the talks would take place in New York.