Sixty-five years after the sub-continent waspartioned in 1947, the year 2012 saw New Delhi and Islamabad taking someconcrete steps to improve trade and ease travel between them. President AsifAli Zardari visited India, but Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made it clear thathe would only visit Pakistan once there was progress in bringing to book thoseresponsible for the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack.
The year began with India and Pakistan inking three dealsand agreeing to liberalise visa regimes and move from a "positivelist" to a short "negative list" trade regime, a major stepforward to ease trade norms and facilitate movements of people.
Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma, who ledthe largest business delegation to Pakistan in February, said the two countrieshave taken a major step forward to boost trade. His Pakistani counterpart AminFahim reciprocated with a tour to India in April.
During Sharma's visit, a customs cooperation agreement wassigned to help avoid arbitrary stoppage of goods at each other's ports.
A bilateral cooperation agreement on mutual recognitionbetween the Pakistan Standard and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) and theBureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and agreement on redressal of trade grievancesbetween Pakistan and India were also signed.
As the year drew to a close, the ties were cemented with thenew visa regime being operationalised during the visit by Pakistan's InteriorMinister Rehman Malik.
The two countries operationalised the visa agreement butmade little headway on key issues including action against Lashkar-e-Taiba(LeT) founder and Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed. India continuedto exert pressure on Pakistan to act against Hafiz Saeed.
Malik insisted that Pakistan was in no way involved with the2008 Mumbai attacks and stoked fresh controversy by alleging that Indiannon-state actors were also involved in the conspiracy. He said 26/11 accusedAbu Jundal "worked as a source for (an) elite agency of India" andcould have turned into a double agent.
During his three-day visit in December, Malik also struck adiscordant note with his purported comparison of the Babri mosque demolitionwith the Mumbai attack.
The year saw President Asif Ali Zardari visiting India.Accompanied by son Bilawal, Zardari also offered prayers at the revered shrineof Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti in Ajmer in April, and also announced adonation of $1 million.
But Pakistan's hopes of hosting Manmohan Singh this year didnot materialise.
Manmohan Singh, who was born in the village of Gah that isnow part of Pakistan's Punjab, is seen as the prime mover behind the initiativeto craft a new relationship with Pakistan.
But Manmohan Singh did not visit Pakistan this year - as washoped for by Islamabad - and in fact told Rehman Malik that his visit to thecountry was dependent on the progress in bringing to book those responsible forthe 26/11 Mumbai terror attack.
During his meeting with Zardari on the sidelines of the NAMsummit in Tehran Aug 30, Manmohan Singh had conveyed that expeditiouslyconcluding the trial of the 26/11 perpetrators would be the biggest confidencebuilding measure.
November saw the hanging of Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lonesurviving Pakistani terrorist involved in the Mumbai attack. Kasab and nineother Pakistani gunmen had launched the bloody attack on multiple locations inMumbai Nov 26-29, 2008, killing 166 people.
A high point in the relations between the two countries camewith the visit of S.M. Krishna, the then Indian external affairs minister, toIslamabad in September.
He met his Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar, and boththe leaders promised to find mutually acceptable solutions to all outstandingissues.
Despite the thaw in relations, there were pinpricks.
Migrants from India's northeastern states suffered anationwide panic attack in August, which was blamed on Pakistani elementsspreading misinformation through the social media.
This prompted Indian Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde totelephone Rehman Malik and ask for full cooperation in "checking suchelements".