October 13, 2002	Sunday	Sha'aban 6, 1423

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

ISLAMABAD, Oct 12: Pakistan on Saturday welcomed international calls for dialogue on the Kashmir issue with India, but questioned the EU endorsement of recent polls held in the Valley.

“The government of Pakistan welcomed the calls for an early resumption of a dialogue between Pakistan and India to resolve all outstanding issues, including the Kashmir dispute,” a foreign ministry statement said.

The European Union on Friday expressed its support for the recent elections in occupied Kashmir and urged all parties to respect the results of the vote, marred by two months of intense violence.

“The EU welcomes the completion of assembly elections ... (and) hopes that the elections will be a starting point for a forward-looking and inclusive dialogue,” said a statement from the Danish EU presidency.

But Pakistan called the polls “farcical” which showed “widespread alienation of the Kashmiri people from the Indian colonial rule and their outright rejection of the Indian scheme to substitute polls for a free and impartial plebiscite ...

“Any outside endorsement of fraudulent exercise cannot lend it legitimacy nor alter the ground realities.”—AFP