October 31, 2001	Wednesday	Shaba’an 13, 1422

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ISLAMABAD, Oct 30: President Gen Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday met, separately, the special envoy of the UN secretary-general, Lakhdar Brahimi, and UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers.

The discussion with Mr Brahimi remained focused on UN-sponsored process for setting up a broad-based government in Kabul; and the issue of providing humanitarian assistance to the refugees was discussed with Mr Lubbers, Foreign Office spokesman Aziz Khan said at the daily briefing.

The president’s spokesman, Rashid Qureshi, was also present at the briefing

Mr Khan said the president in his talks with Mr Brahimi had underlined the need for setting in motion the peace process side by side with the military operation. He said it should also be followed by reconstruction of the war-ravaged country.

The president, he added, had also emphasized that unity, territorial integrity and stability should be preserved and the future political dispensation should reflect the demographic realities of Afghanistan.

He quoted President Musharraf as saying that the political dispensation should be allowed to emerge from within and must not be imposed from outside.

The president, he said, had also put stress on shaping a plan for undertaking reconstruction of Afghanistan as soon as possible for bringing normalcy to the region. He called for focusing on reconstruction work in the area of land development and water management so that the agriculture base of the country “is developed and the Afghan refugees returned to their country.”

Mr Brahimi, he said, had expressed appreciation of Pakistan’s support to the UN peace process. He agreed that there was a need to accelerate political process as well as to prepare a comprehensive reconstruction plan for Afghanistan. Mr Lubbers, who also met Foreign Minister Abdus Sattar, discussed ways and means for ensuring adequate humanitarian assistance to Afghans displaced inside their own country.

He said there was a convergence of views on providing immediate assistance inside Afghanistan to avert a major human catastrophe.

The emphasis was on providing assistance to the Afghan people inside their country and setting up of more camps within the Afghan territory, he added.

Later, responding to a question about concern being expressed by the international community on setting up of camps inside the conflict zone, he said Pakistan had been very generous towards Afghan refugees in the past.

He said no country in the world had played host to such a huge refugee population for such a long time.

He said that till last year, only $13 a refugee a year had been contributed by the international community.

He also cited reports that there were approximately five to six million Afghan people who had been placed in vulnerable group. Such a huge number of people “cannot be granted asylum or accepted as refugees,” he said, adding that it would be more prudent to provide them assistance inside Afghanistan.

Commenting on reports that some action was being contemplated by the United States for taking out Pakistan’s nuclear assets in case of political destabilisation in Pakistan, Mr Qureshi termed them “baseless” and “ridiculous”.

“Those making such statements or carrying such reports had no idea of the security and procedure involved,” he said.

About the refusal of Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to meet President Musharraf in New York next month, he said Pakistan was still desirous of resolving all issues with India, including Kashmir, through dialogue under the UN resolutions and in the light of the aspiration of Kashmiri people.

He reaffirmed Pakistan’s position to hold talks with India anywhere and any time.

As regards the blockade of Karakoram Highway, he said, negotiations were going on with a 30-member Ulema council. He said they expected that the issue would be resolved by Wednesday. On reports that some airbase had been taken over, he said, there was no base in Chilas. There was an abandoned airstrip in Chilas, and the youth used to play cricket there, he said.