Search the Internet          Tips  Indo-Pak Summit

No peace without Kashmir issue resolution: Musharraf

Addressing his first press conference after the Agra summit, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf made an impassioned plea for peace in the subcontinent, but with a rider that there can be no peace 'unless the Kashmir dispute is resolved'.

"Why must we shy away from acknowledging this reality?" said Musharraf.

"The resolution of the Kashmir dispute is at the heart of Indo-Pakistan confrontation," Musharraf asserted.

"This is the only issue blocking peace between us. Let us not be diplomatic. Let us not be manipulative on this issue," he added.

Yet, at the same time Musharraf insisted that he was not being 'unifocal, narrow and segmented in my approach'.

"I'm trying to lay the focus where it belongs," he asserted.

"I'm never and I'm not denying, negating the other important issues that bedevil relations between Pakistan and India. I'm again, to repeat, just laying the proper focus," added Musharraf.

Like Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar on Tuesday, the general said both sides were close to agreeing on a declaration on two occasions, but 'could not ink the agreement'. He, however, refused to go into details of why the declaration could not be signed.

Taking pot shots at the Indian leadership, the general said only those persons whose intentions were unclear or insincere felt a need to play around with words like 'dispute' and 'problem'.

Drawing up a declaration, he said, was no big deal. "Anyone can do it," he remarked.

"It is just a matter of English composition. It can be done in half-an-hour... It is difficult only when dil mei khot hai (there is insincerity)."

Yet, he denied that there was any cross-border terrorism going on between India and Pakistan saying there is only a Line of Control between the state of Jammu & Kashmir and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Moreover, he repeatedly asserted that the turmoil in Kashmir was a freedom struggle.

The general said he had spent almost six hours closetted in discussions with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and they focussed 90 per cent of the time on Kashmir.

But they could not agree on the Kashmir issue being the core dispute between the two countries, he added.

The general enumerated some of the other disputes between India and Pakistan as Siachen, the Sir Creek dispute, the issue of nuclear restraint, the Wular/Tulbul barrage, economic relations, Jinnah House in Bombay vis-a-vis an Indian consulate in Karachi, the issue of visas, and the issue of missing prisoners of war, and asked, "Can you compare these issues with the Kashmir issue?"

Denying that there was inadequate preparation for the summit, the general said he was not a stickler for protocol and preparation was needed only for those who wanted to skirt and avoid issues.

He also denied that his Monday morning press conference with Indian editors had created a problem in the summit, wondering what he had said at the meeting that he hadn't already said in Pakistan or to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Making an impassioned speech before the press conference, the general insisted he had gone to India 'in a sincere search for peace, to close the chapter of mistrust and suspicion, for peace for the sake of the deprived, poverty-stricken 1/5th of humanity in our subcontinent'.

He denied that he had gone to India to score points. "This is not a football match. Scoring points against each other spoils the atmosphere for the future," he asserted.

He iterated his point that there can be no Confidence-building Measure without resolving the Kashmir issue. He said India and Pakistan could not normalise relations in other areas while 'we are killing each other' in Kashmir.

He restated his position that resolving the Kashmir dispute would be the biggest CBM. As long as the dispute remained, it would contribute to distrust and even hatred in the two countries. And that was why all efforts to normalise ties between the two countries had failed for the last 50 years.

The general also repeatedly insisted that the dispute could not be resolved without taking the will of the Kashmiri people into account.

"Let us not let history slip away," he added.

Indo-Pak Summit 2001: The Complete Coverage

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report