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| June 10, 2002 | Monday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 28,1423 |
AL’s help sought to avert war
DUBAI, June 9: Pakistan has sought help from the Arab League to mount diplomatic pressure on India to avert a war between the two South Asian countries.
As part of efforts to rally world opinion on its perspective on Kashmir, former president Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari is on a visit to Egypt. Other emissaries from Pakistan have been to Jordan and Syria and are to visit Turkey and Lebanon.
In Cairo, Mr Leghari called on the Arab League “to interfere” to prevent the eruption of an imminent war between Pakistan and India, saying that the hostilities might affect the neighbouring Arab countries, the Kuwaiti news agency, Kuna, said here on Sunday.
After a meeting with Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, he said: “We do not want war, but if we are attacked, we will defend ourselves. The international community has to prevent a war that could include many countries and not only Pakistan and India.”
Mr Leghari, who is the chief of the Millat Party, said his country had requested the Arab League to continue efforts and good offices to calm down the tensions in the South Asia region, especially in light of an escalation of military deployment that had led to fears of a war.
“Musharraf expressed his readiness to meet the Indian prime minister at anytime and anywhere. India and Pakistan have common enemies, such as poverty and international terrorism that have to be combated.”
The Arab League secretariat, said Mr Leghari, had handed to Mr Moussa a message from President Musharraf about the current India-Pakistan stand-off.
Earlier, a court official quoted Jordan King Abdullah as saying that India and Pakistan “must heed the call of peace and avert drawing their people into a war that will threaten world peace.
“Jordan backs all the proposals aimed at easing the tension and solving the differences between the two countries by peaceful means,” an official said, while referring to the king’s meeting with Wasim Sajjad, one of the five emissaries sent abroad by Gen Musharraf to rally support for his country.
“Our effort is to request these countries to use their good offices with India to persuade them to pursue the path of dialogue rather than a path of war,” Mr Sajjad told reporters after talks with King Abdullah.
He also made a similar appeal in his talks with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, and will pursue his mission in Turkey and Lebanon.—PPI
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