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Pakistan press hopes for peace after India vote
Islamabad (AFP) May 18, 2009 Pakistani newspapers expressed hope Monday for peace with arch-rival India after the moderate Congress-led alliance won elections in the nuclear-armed rising power. India's election commission said the Congress alliance won 261 seats and the party itself 206 -- its best performance since 1991. Pakistan and India began a slow-moving peace process in February 2004 which ground to a halt after New Delhi blamed the Mumbai attacks, in which 166 people were killed last November, on a Pakistani-based militant organisation. Prominent English-language newspaper The News predicted that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, after starting his second-term in office, would focus on improving relations with Pakistan. "The question of ties with Pakistan has already been identified as the key foreign policy issue for the new administration," it said in an editorial. "Indeed Manmohan Singh, known for a soft' stance on Pakistan, had already been actively pursuing this agenda until it was derailed by the Mumbai attacks last November. "Now, free of the stresses and demands that election brings, he will no doubt return to the matter with new energy," it said. Urdu-language newspapers also highlighted the prospect of resumed peace talks with India. "The new government... gives rise to hopes that sooner or later it will have to resume peace talks with Pakistan," the Express daily said in its editorial. "The United States has also expressed the desire for India and Pakistan to normalise relations, so the troop build up on the Pakistan-India border is defused and military can concentrate on extremists on the western border," it said. "Since Manmohan Singh is going to be prime minister for a second time, it works to the benefit of the Pakistani establishment because it knows him well and it would be easier to talk to him than a new person," it said. But another Urdu newspaper recalled the "animosity" that past Congress-led governments had shown towards Pakistan. "It is too early to attach hopes to the new ruling alliance, because the record of Congress towards bettering relations with Pakistan is not envious," wrote Islam in an editorial. Pakistan and India have fought three wars since their 1947 independence from British rule and were close to a nuclear conflict in 2002 due to tensions over the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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