Pakistani Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali has said that time has come for India and Pakistan to move ahead on the road to peace, official Pakistan TV reported on Thursday.

Jamali said in an interview that both countries should forget the past and look for a better and brighter future for their people.

"Time will honor you if you utilize it properly. It is proper time for Pakistan and India to move forward in the right direction," the prime minister said.

"If the two countries lose time, it will not give them a chance in future," he added.

He said, "It is for the first time that a joint declaration has been issued and the time table for resumption of dialogue between the two countries has been agreed."

The step taken by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee toward peace is a positive development, he said.

"We should try to take ahead the process scheduled to begin in February to a logical conclusion, and it is not in the interest of two countries to retreat," Jamali said.

Both countries will have to move ahead, the prime minister said, adding that though it is an old matter, it is now heading forward in a new way.

Jamali said President Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee, during their meeting on the sideline of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit, agreed to hold dialogue in the best interests of both the countries.

He said both countries have to come out from their ego and personality to make the forthcoming dialogue a success.

Maximum flexibility must be shown in the dialogue process for the betterment and prosperity of the people of the two countries, said the prime minister.

The prime minister said both countries have to show trust in each other so that it would be easy for them to move forward.

(People’s Daily January 23, 2004)