ISLAMABAD: Speakers at a book launch ceremony here on Sunday laid stress on continuous dialogue between Pakistan and India. The ceremony for the launch of Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri’s book was held at Lok Virsa Museum on the concluding day of the Islamabad Literature Festival (ILF). People from all walks of life, including former and serving diplomats, foreign diplomats, retired officers of the armed forces and top media personalities, attended the ceremony. The closing day of the 4th ILF saw a ceremony where Kasuri’s book titled “Neither a Hawk Nor a Dove: An Insider’s Account of Pakistan’s Foreign Relations Including Details of the Kashmir Framework” was launched. Zahid Hussain, correspondent for The Times, London and The Wall Street Journal, was the moderator of a panel discussion on this occasion. Kasuri, former foreign minister of Pakistan; Sudheendra Kulkarni, chairman of the Observer Research Foundation in Mumbai; Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, former Pakistan ambassador to Washington and high commissioner to New Delhi and Mehr Tarar, Executive Editor at Daily Times, were the panellists who took part in the discussion. Kasuri, before commenting on his book, greeted all the dignitaries present on the occasion and paid tribute to Air Marshal (Retd) Asghar Khan, the founder of the Tehreek-e-Istaqlal, who was also present on the occasion. Kasuri said that Khan was perhaps the most honest politician in Pakistan. He said that PAF and the PIA were the living examples of quality of his governance because he was the first Pakistani head of both organisations. Kulkarni said that Kasuri’s book was a great help in recording events of that important period and improving relations between the two countries. He quoted Faiz Ahmed Faiz, “War can never be a solution to any problem; war itself is a problem.” Qazi acknowledged the services of Kasuri and said that there was no overnight solution to the Pakistan-India tension. He said that a viable long-term plan was needed to bring both countries to a common ground. He said that Kasuri always considered ground realities whenever he spoke or wrote about Pakistan-India relations. Tarar said that Pakistan and India should continue dialogue on all issues and Kashmir should be the one. She said that trade and business between the two countries should flourish, as they strive to achieve a common ground on the Kashmir issue. Commenting on the questions raised by the media about the fate of the dialogue between Pakistan and India after the Pathankot airbase attack and the arrest of Indian intelligence official Kulbhushan Yadav in Balochistan, Kasuri expressed his unhappiness at the fact that a network of the Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) was operating in Pakistan even after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Pakistan. He stressed that Pakistan should highlight this issue at the international level because India had been continuously attacking the Pakistan Army and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Responding to a question about the objective of his book, Kasuri said that he wrote it primarily to record a slice of the South Asian history, a period which saw the most successful peace process between the two countries since their partition in 1946. He said that only a few people could write an insider’s account, which would take into consideration political compulsions of both side and comment on both front and back channels of that time. There were three foreign ministers who were his counterparts in India and none of them was able to complete his tenure, Kasuri said. Former foreign ministers Gohar Ayub Khan and Abdul Sattar, former foreign secretaries Dr Humayun Khan, Riaz Khokhar and Riaz Mohammad Khan, former chief of general staff Lt-Gen Ali Kuli Khan Khattak, former Senate chairman Wasim Sajjad, former senator Anwar Baig and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Information Secretary Naeem-ul-Haq were also present. Neither a Hawk Nor a Dove is a comprehensive account of the most promising dialogue between India and Pakistan by a Pakistani foreign minister who directly contributed to moving the peace process forward. An in-depth analysis of the Kashmir issue and the complex nature of the Pakistan-US-Afghanistan-India quadrangular relationship, Kasuri’s book provides key insights into Pakistan’s foreign policy during a critical period in the history.