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| Delhi receives J&K-specific word from Islamasbad | | India should grapple head-on with Kashmir dispute:Iqbal | |
NEW DELHI, NOV. 7: Pakistan's Minister for Kashmir Affairs, Tahir Iqbal, has warned that the peace dialogue between his country and India would end up a "futile exercise" if the government of India declined to grapple head-on with the thorny Kashmir dispute. In a media interview, Pakistani Minister said that the time had come for the two countries to reinvirate the "wobbly peace process" by grappling head-on the Kashmir dispute.
Speaking ahead of the resumption of peace talks in New Delhi between the Foreign Secretaries of the two countries next week after being put on ice for months, Tahir Iqbal was reported to have recommended that the dialogue should move from merely devising confidence building measures to ending the Kashmir conflict itself.
Since its launching two years ago, the peace process has moved slowly, with the only major result being a bus link across the Line of Control (LoC), whicdivides the Indian and Pakistani sectors of Jammu and Kashmir. In his question-answer session in Washington with a French news agency, Pakistan's Minister for Kashmir Affairs was quoted as asserting: "Unless we try to find a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir problem, I think this exercise is futile, and we need to concentrate on the Kashmir problem itself".
Tahir Iqbal was also quoted as arguing: "I think the CBMs (confidence building measures) only will not solve the Kashmir problem. It is the Kashmir problem itself which has to be talked about, has to be discussed and finally find a solution to". While Pakistan has been eager to use the peace dialogue for a quick deal on Kashmir, India sees the process as a means to ending "cross-border" militancy and terrorism.
Pakistan, Iqbal has divulged, will push for efforts to demilitarise Kashmir and allow for self-governance in that Himalayan region during the upcoming talks between Foreign Secretaries of the two South Asian rivals in New Delhi. The talks were suspended after India blamed Pakistan for deadly bombings in India's financial capital Mumbai on July 11 this year.
Emphasizing that "the most important" factor in resolving the Kashmir dispute was involvement of the people in the region, Tahir Iqbal insisted: "It is the Kashmiri leadership which will play a vital role and any solution which is acceptable to them would then be used to formulate the final papers and agreement".
India and Pakistan hold part of Jasmmu and Kashmir but claim it in full. The territory has caused two of the three wars between the neighbours since their independence from Britain in 1947, plus a major skirmish in Kargil in 1999.India accuses Pakistan of training and arming Islamic rebels battling Indian rule, a charge denied by Islamabad.
According to Iqbal, Pakistan's proposal for troop cuts in Kashmir is "essential" to set the stage for a permanent resolution to the issue. The demilitarization could take place along the Line of Control or in major towns of the region, he said. Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf's proposed the troop cuts earlier this year but the idea was rejected by the Indians, citing rising violence.
Iqbal felt that India's government led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was "interested to find some solution" to the Kashmir problem but faced "political pressures." Fearing future elections, the Congress party, which leads the coalition government in New Delhi, does not want to take the "leap" forward in ending the 60-year-old problem, he said. |
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