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| Pak Premier ignores J&K separatists | | K-word doesn't find any mention at SAARC meet | | BL KAK
NEW DELHI, Apr 3
Pakistan Prime Minister, Shaukat Aziz, created history on Tuesday in the Indian capital. He, for reasons best known to him and his 'boss', Gen. Parvez Musharraf, avoided making use of the word 'Kashmir' during his speech at the 14th summit of the SAARC countries.
By the time the Pak Prime Minister arrived in Delhi, several separatist groups and leaders in Kashmir had anticipated that the K-word would be raised by him at SAARC summit that opened on Tuesday morning. Shaukat Aziz discretely avoided the K-word at SAARC this time.
But he did raise the bilateral issues with India obliquely as the summit opened in the Indian capital amid tightest possible security measures. Addressing the summit, Pakistan Prime Minister said that it was essential to remove "obstacles of the trust deficit which has hampered meaningful cooperation in the region".
Just ahead of his visit to Delhi, Aziz had harped on the resolution of the Kashmir issue, which he says was a "must" for SAARC to realise its full potential. "SAARC has a lot of potential. But dispute resolution, particularly the Kashmir issue and peace and harmony, was a must to realise this potential", he said.
On Tuesday, Shaukat Aziz, however, avoided mentioning Kashmir. He just said Pakistan favours "peaceful co-existence" and building of inter-dependencies and sharing of best practices. "Political will", he said, was the initial requirement for regional integration. Aziz made the remark a day ahead of his scheduled meeting with his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh on Wednesday, when the two leaders are to review the bilateral relations and discuss, among other, the key issues of Siachen, Sir Creek and terrorism.
"The reason why we have been slow in catching up with the other regional organisations is evident. The political environment in South Asia has remained vitiated by disputes and mistrust. We have been mired in conflict management", the Pakistan Prime Minister said. His strong recommendation: "We must have the necessary political will. We must rise above our differences for the greater good of our people". He said that the principles of peaceful coexistence and building inter-dependency between nations should be adhered to strictly "to help each other in order to help ourselves".
Shaukat Aziz noted that the "drain of our energies" due to conflict management has held back the region from achieving the SAARC goals. He proposed a "roadmap" which includes promotion of an environment of "genuine peace and security" in South Asia, saying it was directly linked to development. He said: "This requires us to resolve the differences and disputes within and between our countries through dialogue and compromise. We must be able to rise above our differences for the greater good of our people and our future generations".
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