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Pak erred in making Kashmir core issue: Bhutto

H S Rao in London

Less than a week before the Agra summit, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto has said that Pakistani rulers, including herself, had made the mistake of making the resolution of the conflict over Kashmir a precondition for negotiations with India.

"This has caused untold damage to [Pakistan's] economy. With hindsight, I believe we were wrong. Talks must be held on Kashmir and other issues as well," she said in an interview to a London-based television and radio news production unit, Newswallahs.

Asked how the Kashmir issue could be resolved, she said, "We must keep safe and open borders between the two countries to help people to come together."

Referring to the forthcoming summit, she said President Pervez Musharraf was using India to stabilise his own domestic situation and New Delhi would be making a mistake if it believed in the general's "peace gambit".

"The general wants to continue in power. He wants to send the signal at the international level that he is a good boy who is going to New Delhi to establish peace," Bhutto, chief of the Pakistan People's Party, said.

"But I suspect he is trying to divert attention from Afghanistan and is merely exploiting the Indian issue at the international level to improve his domestic situation," she said.

Bhutto, who lives in London and the United Arab Emirates in self-imposed exile, said, "We believe Gen Musharraf has no mandate. So on whose behalf will he hold discussions with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee?"

Bhutto said there was a clear danger of fundamentalist forces multiplying in Pakistan. "Since Gen Musharraf came to power more fundamentalist centres have come up on Pakistan's soil. In fact, a prime factor for Pakistan's economic collapse is growing militancy and consequently the loss of investors' confidence. People fear that eventually Pakistan too may meet Afghanistan's fate," she said.

PTI

Indo-Pak Summit 2001: The Complete Coverage

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