NEW YORK, Sept 14: President Pervez Musharraf said on Friday he will be forced from power if he ever dropped the stipulation that Kashmir was the core dispute governing relations with India.

While calling on India to return to the negotiating table, Musharraf said any talks had to accept the “reality” that the bitter territorial dispute over Kashmir was the main issue undermining peace in South Asia.

“No leader. No government of Pakistan can ever sidestep on the issue of Kashmir ... because the people of Pakistan, each individual, is involved,” he said in an address to the Asia Society in New York on Friday.

“It is not possible. Nobody can do it. He’ll be eliminated. He’ll be out of government. He’ll be defeated. His government will be defeated.”

Musharraf said it was time that India dropped its opposition to outside mediation in the Kashmir question.

“We have been trying for all these years through a bilateral approach to move forward on Kashmir, and where has it ended? Nowhere,” the president said.

“If bilateralism is not producing results then certainly mediation or third party involvement is the answer,” he said, adding the United States was better positioned to play a role than a regional grouping like Saarc. “Saarc is an impotent organisation quite frankly,” he said.—AFP