Pakistan-India relations since independence have been the victim of oscillations between short-lived periods of euphoria and raised expectations followed by long intervals marked by disappointment, strains, tensions and even armed conflicts. Consequently, both the countries continue to suffer from mutual mistrust, their bilateral disputes remain unresolved and their cooperation is circumscribed by severe restrictions and limitations. The assumption of power by the newly elected government in Pakistan and the expected commencement of the fifth round of the composite dialogue between Pakistan and India offer an opportunity to the two countries to chart a new course in their bilateral relations. Both Pakistan and India need to avoid short-sighted policies for scoring points or securing short-term gains which resulted in bedevilling their relations in the past and diverting their attention from the gigantic task of eradicating poverty and raising the standard of living of their peoples. The starting point in the development of a new approach has to be the recognition by the two South Asian nuclear powers that peace between them is a strategic imperative. They can no longer afford an armed conflict because of the inherent risk of its escalation into a nuclear conflagration. The use of force for the settlement of bilateral disputes, therefore, must be ruled out by both Pakistan and India. The composite dialogue between the two neighbours must continue to build up trust and confidence, establish a strategic restraint regime, develop mutually beneficial cooperation and make progress towards the resolution of disputes. The steady improvement of relations between Pakistan and India requires some further changes in the way they deal with each other. India, being the biggest country in South Asia, must lead the way by discarding hegemonic designs in the region. The views of Indian analysts and commentators show that India has not yet given up its pursuit of regional hegemony. In an article in the Foreign Affairs issue of July-August, 2006, a well-known Indian analyst, C Raja Mohan, stressed that India had sought "primacy and a veto over actions of outside powers" in its immediate neighbourhood, that is, South Asia. As long as India continues to nurture such ambitions, its relations with Pakistan will remain marked by mutual mistrust and tensions instead of understanding and cooperation. Indian leadership must also disabuse itself of the notion that Pakistan, which came into existence as a separate state through the exercise of vote on the basis of the two-nation theory, would ever rejoin India in the form of a federation or confederation. Statements by Indian leaders to that effect merely create doubts and suspicions in the minds of the Pakistanis and vitiate the climate of bilateral relations. The latest example of such a statement was the comment made, not surprisingly, by L K Advani in an exclusive interview with a private Pakistani TV news channel expressing his hope that "although the Kashmir problem would take time to resolve, a day would come when India and Pakistan would form a confederation to solve the issue." That is to say, Mr Advani expects Pakistan to commit hara-kiri as an independent and sovereign nation for the solution of the Kashmir issue This, of course, cannot be acceptable to Pakistan. Pakistan, on its part, also needs to modify its approach in managing its relations with India. The corollary of the imperative of peace between Pakistan and India is that the substance of their future relationship will be decided primarily by their performance in political and economic fields. While Pakistan must maintain a minimum credible deterrence, it would have to adopt a comprehensive definition of security attaching much higher priority to internal political stability within a democratic framework, economic development, education and health of its people than has been the case so far. The higher priority of economic development must manifest itself in a quantum jump in the allocation of resources, particularly to education and health. Our leaders including the top brass of the armed forces should not overlook the fact that the Soviet Union collapsed not because of the dearth of advanced weaponry but because of the weakness of its polity and economy. Needless to add that our performance in both political and economic fields leaves a lot to be desired. We continue to suffer from political instability which has been aggravated by repeated military interventions and the immaturity of our politicians. On the economic side, despite the tall claims of Musharraf's economic team, the average growth rate of our economy has remained far below that of India during the past eight years. In addition, our economy currently suffers from serious structural imbalances. Thus, the nation and its leaders need to focus on strengthening internal political stability and accelerating the pace of economic development if we expect to get satisfactory results from our dialogue with India. While welcoming opportunities for cooperation with India in economic, commercial and other fields, Pakistan must insist that such cooperation should be conducted on a level playing field and should not endanger Pakistan's independence and integrity in the long run. The proposal for a South Asian economic union must be considered in the light of this caveat. An economic union involves the integration of the economies of its member states leading to the domination by the biggest economy. A South Asian economic union would not only mean that the decisions about Pakistan's economy would be taken in New Delhi. Pakistan's economic dependence on India will also be a precursor of its acceptance of India's political tutelage. This is precisely what Indian leaders of Advani's ilk are looking forward to. Finally, it should be obvious even to a novice in foreign policy that a satisfactory solution of the Kashmir dispute from Pakistan's point of view is not within our reach in the short-term because of the current huge power imbalance in favour of India. Time has come for the adoption of a long-term approach in contrast with our efforts in the past to find an immediate solution. The best that Pakistan can do in the short-term is to work with India for improving the plight of the Kashmiris through protection of their human rights, substantial reduction in the Indian military presence in IHK. Meanwhile, Pakistan should focus on building up its strength politically, economically, militarily and diplomatically to improve the balance of power vis--vis India. The writer is a former ambassador E-mail: javid_husain@yahoo.com