ISLAMABAD, Jan 14: India’s cautious response to President Pervez Musharraf’s address to the nation has been received by the Foreign Office as “not negative,” and it continues to look forward to resumption of dialogue between the two countries, official spokesman said.
“We expected a warmer response from India but the fact is that they have responded,” Foreign Office spokesman Kamran Niaz said at the regular briefing here on Monday. President’s spokesman Maj-Gen Rashid Qureshi was also present at the briefing.
“We continue to look forward to dialogue and hope that tensions will be reduced,” he said.
The prospects of immediate de-escalation on the borders remained bleak as the president’s spokesman said that Pakistan would not withdraw its troops until Indian forces moved back to the peacetime locations.
Pakistan, he said, was constrained to take defensive measures in response to massive deployment of Indian forces on the border.
Gen Rashid said Pakistan expected Indian troops to move back to peacetime positions to reduce tensions.
He said India had deployed a large number of troops on borders and as long as they remained there, the tension would not ease off.
Mr Niaz in his opening remarks reiterated that Pakistan would remain steadfast in its stance on the Kashmir question and would continue to support the just struggle of Kashmiri people morally, politically and diplomatically.
When asked to comment on a statement of Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes that they had heard the words of President Musharraf but waiting for steps to match them, Gen Rashid said Pakistan had rejected terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, including state-sponsored terrorism.
He recalled that Pakistan had denounced the terrorist attack on the Indian parliament on Dec 13, and had announced that it would take action against individuals or organizations found involved in these attacks if India provided evidence against them.
He regretted that India did not provide any evidence against the alleged terrorists. Pakistan’s stated position remained that it would continue to denounce terrorism ‘wherever it occurs’.
Gen Rashid was not aware of the exact number of the activists of the two banned organizations so far arrested by the law enforcement agencies. However, he said, there should be no doubt in anybody’s mind about the government’s ability to implement these decisions.
The action has been completed to a great extent, he added.
The Foreign Office spokesman added by saying that the action announced by the president in his speech, which he dubbed a “landmark address”, was the continuation of the policies initiated much earlier. To a question about Indo-Israel defence deal of over one billion dollars, he said their growing defence cooperation had been a cause for serious concern to Pakistan. He said the government was fully aware of their cooperation and had conveyed its concern to the friendly countries.
To a question that India had turned down the proposal of third-party mediation, the spokesman said Pakistan was for peaceful settlement of the Kashmir issue through whatever means available, either through third party mediation or through the mechanism available under the United Nations charter.
Commenting on Jaswant Singh’s statement that UN Security Council resolutions were not valid any more, he said the way Jaswant Singh characterized these resolutions did not change the situation or the legality of these resolutions. If India decided to go back on these resolutions, it would not have any effect on these resolutions or on Pakistan’s position seeking their implementation, he added.
On the weekly telephonic contact between the Directors-General of Military Operations of Pakistan and India, the spokesman said, there had never been an occasion in the past when the DGMOs of the two countries had not contacted each other. “The contact takes place on every Tuesday and they will contact each other tomorrow,” he added.
Gen Rashid vehemently refuted a notion that some organizations in Pakistan had been recruiting militants and exporting them to Kashmir.
He ruled out the possibility of any infiltration through the line of control, where India had been maintaining three layers of security, each having 800 yards of minefield ahead.
“It is next to impossible to cross three layers of security forces and surface inside Kashmir where Indians had been maintaining 600,000 troops,” he added.
Giving the reasons for imposing a ban on Lashkar-i-Taiba and Jaish-i-Mohammed, he said they had been involved in inciting extremism and terrorism inside the country.
To a question, Gen Rashid said that Pakistan was taking action against extremists as a policy matter to eliminate terrorism and not on India’s demand.
About extradition of 20 alleged terrorists as demanded by India, Mr Niaz pointed out that President Musharraf had stated in his speech that no Pakistani would be handed over to India. Pakistan, he said, had not granted asylum to anybody. Extradition, he added, involved some legal procedure and for that evidence would be required to initiate these procedure. India, he maintained, had not provided any evidence except for making demands and assertions.
APP adds: US Secretary of State Colin Powell will meet President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar on January 16 to discuss bilateral issues and tense situation prevailing between India and Pakistan.
Mr Powell will arrive on Jan 16 to Pakistan and meet the president and the foreign minister, confirmed Kamran Niaz, the Foreign Office spokesman, during a briefing at Foreign Office.
