Pakistan on Monday promised not to raise the Kashmir issue at next week's South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit and offered a 'constructive and supportive' approach on issues relating to terrorism.
"I don't think that this issue [Kashmir] would be raised, discussed or debated at the SAARC summit," Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan told reporters after a meeting of the programming committee comprising joint secretaries of the seven SAARC nations.
Khan said the committee did not discuss any proposal to change the SAARC charter to accommodate discussions on bilateral issues like Kashmir.
Though the basic charter can be interpreted to take up contentious issues, SAARC by tradition has avoided that, he said.
The four-day SAARC summit from January 4 will consider an additional protocol on terrorism which has been "discussed for a while" but which needed updating in the light of UN resolution to freeze funding and financial support to
terrorists, Khan said.
"I am not sure whether the additional protocol will be signed during the SAARC summit. But Pakistan will remain constructive and supportive on issues relating to terrorism," he said.
Officials said India and Pakistan have differences on the proposed additional protocol with New Delhi wanting the member states to take specific steps and amend domestic laws to ensure that criminal acts by terrorists are not justified on political, ideological or religious grounds.
Having backed militancy in Jammu and Kashmir, Islamabad is opposed to such proposals and formulations, the officials
said.
