Talks in advanced stage

Kasuri: Business community key,Tatas had talks with Pak leadership.

Revealing that the India-Pakistan peace talks had reached an advanced stage,former Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri said on Friday that Indian business houses like the Tatas had talks with the Pakistani leadership.

He said the peace process between his country and India was significantly influenced by the business community on either side. We thought that once we got things moving,we would encourage business interactions,commercial interactions. So there was lots of things going forward for the peace process, detailed Kasuri,who is here on an invitation from the Indian Council of World Affairs.

There was a line of Indians,businessmen and industrialists,trying to meet us,me and President Musharaff,when we went to Davos. Tatas came to lunch with us,lots of others were coming, he said in an interview with The Indian Express.

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Kasuri said the mutual driving force for both countries to settle their disputes was also the desire of the rising middle class for regional peace and security helped by a constituency for peace within Pakistan.

On resolving the Siachen dispute,Kasuri said,Siachen has been ready for many years to sign. It is Indias concern as to whether if they move out,we will walk in… but we had taken care of all concerns. We will not be able to walk in. That is the bottomline. It will become a mountain of peace as your Prime Minister said.

Downplaying criticism that Pakistan Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani was not in favour of peace talks,Kasuri said Kayani was definitely supportive then and if he was agreeable to what we were doing then,there is no reason to doubt he has changed his mind.