The Pakistani media on Thursday downplayed the fourth round of four-year-old Indo-Pak composite dialogue even as the two countries vowed to push their bilateral ties towards normalisation.
Almost all the leading newspapers reported little progress on the talks between New Delhi and Islamabad, that concluded with the signing of a key agreement for consular access to prisoners.
In its front-page report, leading English daily the Dawn said that "Qureshi, Mukherjee made little progress -- Pakistan offers grand reconciliation."
The report added: "It was apparent that they (the foreign ministers) had made no substantial progress on major issues and were banking on the working relationship they had built during the talks to make progress in the next round."
Similarly, another leading newspaper The Daily Times said, "Despite the 'marked improvement' in Pakistan-India relations, the two key countries have to do a lot more to establish a balanced, mature and functional relationship that would be in the interest of its masses and the whole region."
Voicing concern that in the span of six decades, India and Pakistan engaged in three wars, including Kargil, and even now they never miss an opportunity to blame each other for terrorism, the newspaper said in one of its opinion pieces penned by a retired Pakistani Army officer: "All this has to change."
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