Pakistan a responsible N-state: Kasuri: Islamabad seeks peace with Delhi
BANGKOK, June 24: Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri said on Tuesday Pakistan was a responsible nuclear state having impeccable track record with a firm command and control mechanism in place.
He was replying to a question at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand about President Pervez Musharraf’s recent statement on the growing disparity between Islamabad and New Delhi and whether this implied a possible use of nuclear weapons by Pakistan.
Mr Kasuri appreciated the initiative taken by Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to start peace process and hoped that it would be a ‘strategic’ move and not just a ‘tactical’ ploy to placate international opinion.
In reply to a question on proposed India-Pakistan dialogue, Mr Kasuri said the two countries did not have to start from the scratch. “The two sides could pick up from the point they had left off at the Agra summit.”
He recalled that Gen Musharraf and Mr Vajpayee had agreed to a composite dialogue but the draft Agra declaration could not be signed due to intransigence of the BJP hardliners.
Mr Kasuri reiterated Pakistan’s diplomatic, political and moral support for the Kashmiris’ freedom struggle. He underscored that Kashmir dispute was not about territory but about the aspirations of Kashmiris, which remained unfulfilled.
He said the world community should not be selective regarding the implementation of the UN resolutions. He underlined that Islamabad’s sincerity to normalize relations with Delhi could be judged from the fact that Pakistan had invited India to benefit from the gas pipeline projects between Pakistan and Iran, and Pakistan-Afghanistan-Turkmenistan.
He, however, emphasized that only a composite dialogue, which would address all issues of concern, including the issue of Jammu and Kashmir, could bring peace to the subcontinent.
The foreign minister highlighted the legal rights of women and the minorities in Pakistan under the present constitutional dispensation. He said that for both segments not only were there reserved seats in the legislature but they also enjoyed the right to vote and contest in the general elections.
Regarding Afghanistan, he said, Pakistan supported the Bonn Process and President Hamid Karzai’s government. Despite being a country of modest means Pakistan had contributed $100 million to the reconstruction of Afghanistan, he added.
OPTIMISM EXPRESSED: Mr Kasuri expressed optimism about a peace deal with India and said war was “not a viable option” for resolving the Kashmir dispute.
“We have to talk and talk continuously, uninterrupted and uninterruptedly, regardless of the ups and downs of the ebbs and flows,” Mr Kasuri told AFP during an interview.
“We’ve come to the conclusion that war is not a viable option,” he said, adding that the possibility of future peace “is more propitious than it has been in the past.”
The minister said there were several factors why he felt “this time may be for real.”—Agencies
