It was a simple question to a politician, asked without expectation of a proper reply, but Pakistan’s interior minister Rehman Malik knocked the stuffing out of every Pakistani in earshot with his reply.

India and Pakistan have evidently decided to turn their backs on their acrimonious past, with Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and Yousaf Raza Gilani publicly praising one another after an hour-long one-on-one interaction here, and announcing that in their subsequent dialogue they would be even more forthcoming.

Meeting on the sidelines of the two-day 17th Saarc summit, which opens Thursday, external affairs minister S.M. Krishna and Pakistan’s foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar discussed trade and terrorism issues Wednesday with a view to broadening the two countries’ engagement.