ISLAMABAD, Feb 25: The spokesman for President Musharraf, Maj-Gen Rashid Qureshi, on Monday termed Indian President K.R. Narayanan’s speech in the Indian Parliament “unfortunate and disappointing.”
When asked to comment, ISPR director-general said Mr Narayanan in his speech before the Indian parliament “had spoken in aggressive and hostile language.”
He said: “Pakistan rejects these allegations with all force, at its command.”
“Pakistan wants to make it clear that it would never deviate from its principled stand in its fight against terrorism and curbing of extremism,” he said, adding emphatically: “No tactics of India would ever succeed in intimidating Pakistan.”
The international community, he said, had already condemned the aggressive posture adopted by India, by always advising New Delhi to enter into dialogue with Pakistan, and desist from escalating tension or resorting to any act of adventurism.
Mr Qureshi said India should face the reality and desist from resorting to the state terrorism.
He emphatically declared that Pakistan would never hold talks on the terms dictated by India. Such conditions, he said, did not reflect sincerity of India, rather it carried vested interest of New Delhi.
Gen Qureshi said the BJP had conducted election campaign in the recent polls by carrying out baseless propaganda against Pakistan.”But, it suffered a humiliating defeat in these elections which included the largest Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.”
He said: “This amply proved that the people of India had rejected the hostile posture of the BJP leadership.”
The Indians, he added, had thus proved to the BJP government the need for resolving the Kashmir dispute and other issues with Pakistan. “But, it seems, the Indian leadership have not learnt any lesson from their defeat and rejected the sentiments of their own people.”
The spokesman said: “In fact, the expectations of the Indian people stand outrightly frustrated on the basis of the actions of the BJP leadership.”
He said if the Indian government had any interest in the peace and stability of South Asia, the Indian President would have advised his government to withdraw its forces from the borders and immediately resume talks with Pakistan on Kashmir dispute.—APP
