Pak. to raise Kashmir issue at multilateral forums

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, AUG. 18. The Pakistan military government has said that it would continue to raise the Kashmir issue at multilateral forums as it considered it an international issue.

The Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson and chief spokesperson of the Pakistan Military, Maj. Gen. Rashid Qureshi, deemed it necessary to clarify the position in the light of the statement made by the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, in the Rajya Sabha two days ago.

Talking to the BBC, Maj. Gen. Qureshi expressed the hope that Mr. Vajpayee's statements with reference to the Agra summit will not have any impact on any future Indo-Pak talks. ``Our effort is that it should not affect,'' he said.

Asked if Pakistan had sought any clarification about India's statements at official level, he said: ``At first Pakistan displayed utmost restraint and tolerance and is still doing so. We know that there are internal problems and that is why people make such statements. Such statements repeatedly come from India. The President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, has urged restraint from leaders from across the border. We deplore that persistently they are making statements which are baseless.''

He said the U.N. resolution on Kashmir was still relevant. ``How can Pakistan say that it is not an international issue? It cannot be so. Wisdom does not accept it.''

Gen. Qureshi said they had not received any proposals from India about the `broad framework' for the next round of negotiations between the two countries. Mr. Vajpayee in his speech in the Rajya Sabha on August 16 had said a `broad framework' for future talks had been agreed to with Pakistan.

The spokesperson said he was not aware whether Mr. Vajpayee referred to the framework for talks which was spoken about by the Pakistan Foreign Minister, Mr. Abdul Sattar, in his press conference in Islamabad two days after the Agra summit.

Mr. Sattar had said on July 18 that both India and Pakistan made `valuable progress' on evolving a structure for a sustained dialogue process during the course of the summit. The structure envisaged talks on Jammu and Kashmir, peace and security, and terrorism and drug-trafficking at the political level. Economic and commercial cooperation, Siachen, Wullar Barrage, Sir Creek and promotion of friendly exchanges at various levels would be addressed at the level of high officials.

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Section  : International
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