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Sheela Bhatt in New Delhi
Pakistan High Commissioner to India Ashraf Kazi Jehangir on Monday said Jammu and Kashmir is the most important bilateral issue between India and Pakistan.
"Jammu and Kashmir affects all other bilateral matters," he said at a seminar in New Delhi.
He rejected the assumption that gradually a consensus was being built to accept the line of control in Jammu and Kashmir as the international border. "This not the presumption of the proposed talk (between Vajpayee and Musharraf). The status quo (on the Kashmir issue) is in conflict with the aspirations of the people," he said.
Underlining the Pakistani position that Kashmir is a disputed territory, he said: "I don't say Kashmir is a part of Pakistan, but we don't recognise it as a part of India either."
When asked if Pakistan's idea of referendum would include PoK too, he said: "Do you mean Azad Kashmir? We only recognise Kashmir as it existed before 1952."
Commenting on the opposition to the Vajapayee-Musharraf dialogue from certain sections in Pakistan, he said: "No matter how serious the differences between us are, the presence of dialogue helps more than the absence of it. Skepticism is okay, cynicism is not."
The seminar, organised by the Indian Women Press Corps, was attended by former foreign secretary S K Singh, columnist Brahma Chellany and senior journalist Imtiyaz Alam.
Meanwhile in Pakistan, Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar too opposed the idea of converting the line of control in Jammu and Kashmir into international border. "Status quo is the problem. It cannot be a solution," he said.
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