Pakistan is ready to allow leaders from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir to travel to India by the new bus service if India allows Hurriyat leaders to travel across to this country, Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri said on Thursday.

His comments came on being asked at a function in Lahore [Images] why Pakistan did not permit top Jammu and Kashmir [Images] politicians to travel by the inaugural bus service across the Line of Control [Images].

The Road to Peace

India has in theory allowed Hurriyat leaders to apply for special permits to travel by the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus.

Kasuri said the commencement of the bus service would provide Kashmiris on both sides a chance to start thinking about possible solutions to the Kashmir issue.

He said India and Pakistan have fought wars over Kashmir, but now "sanity has prevailed and hopefully this means a peaceful future for both countries."