|
|
|
| June 4, 2002 | Tuesday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 22,1423 |
President for talks to settle disputes
ALMATY, June 3: President Gen Pervez Musharraf has come to Almaty to search for lasting peace in the sub-continent, said Federal Information and Media Development Minister Nisar Memon at a news conference on Monday in the backdrop of the 16-nation Conference of Interaction and Confidence-building in Asia (CICA), commencing on Tuesday.
He said the president had already declared his country’s intention to hold dialogues with India on all the outstanding issues, including the core issue of Kashmir.
Mr Memon observed that the summit would give impetus to the CICA declaration adopted in September 1999 at the Foreign Ministers Conference in Almaty. “The summit will seek to give a direction to further development of CICA initiative that has been evolving for over the last 10 years.”
The CICA declaration reaffirms the commitment of the member states to the purposes and principles of the UN charter and recognizes that peaceful co-existence would be beneficial for strengthening peace, stability, security and cooperation in Asia. It emphasizes the importance of confidence-building measures and calls for peaceful settlement of disputes and conflicts through dialogue.
The minister said the conference was taking place during historic and momentous times when peace was under threat in the sub-continent.
“The conference has come at the right time,” he said, adding that the president had already said that his country had put no conditions for peace talks with India and had reiterated the importance of peace in the sub-continent, where millions of people lived below the poverty line.
Mr Memon said Pakistan had itself been the victim of terrorist attacks, citing the killing of 14 Frenchmen in Karachi and the earlier church attack in Islamabad. He said his country was paying the price of helping the world community in the war against terrorism.
Pakistan would not allow the use of its territory for terrorist activities, he said, while mentioning the anti-terrorism measures taken by the president, including a ban on militant outfits and the arrests of their leaders and activists.
He said President Musharraf, during his brief meeting with newsmen after his meeting with the Kazakh president, had said that India needed to de-escalate and withdraw troops from the Pakistani border to lesson the tension.
He lamented that the Indian leadership had not yet shown its inclination to hold dialogues with Pakistan.—APP
|
|
|
|
