August 23, 2003	Saturday	Jumadi-us-Sani 24, 1424

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UNITED NATIONS, Aug 22: Pakistan on Thursday asked the international community to “urgently” call on India to respond positively to its proposals “to revive bilateral dialogue, install a ceasefire along the Line of Control, halt threatening statements and propaganda and stop the repression in Kashmir.”

  In letters addressed to the UN General Assembly and Security Council presidents, Pakistan’s ambassador Munir Akram said: “So far, there is no talk about talks, no road map and no signpost for moving towards a genuine process for peace and security in South Asia.”

He said: “A bilateral dialogue is not a favour which either country would bestow on the other. India’s demand that Pakistan make unilateral concessions to its position is designed to frustrate not facilitate a dialogue.”  He asserted that “India’s aversion to talks, is premised on seeking concessions from Pakistan unilaterally through coercive means.”

“A delay in opening such a dialogue is bound to strengthen the positions of extremists and complicate the search for acceptable mutual solutions to outstanding issues. These trends may accentuate in view of the ascendancy of militant Hindu extremist sentiments within the Indian polity now being manifested in the pre-electoral play in India,” the ambassador said.

“Obviously,” he said, “a resolution of Jammu and Kashmir is central to the promotion of normal and friendly relations between Pakistan and India. It is the principal item on the agreed agenda for bilateral talks.”

Saying that Pakistan’s approach was guided by “a sense of responsibility and a desire to lower tensions and  prevent conflict,” Mr Akram said “Pakistan is also prepared to discuss and evolve  confidence-building measures with India, both political and military, in the conventional and nuclear fields.”

Talking to reporters, he said the letter was meant to make Pakistan’s position clear ahead of the debate on international peace and security expected during the UN General Assembly session next month.

Saying that Pakistan had advanced several proposals to address the Kashmir dispute, including a ceasefire and confidence-building measures, Mr Akram noted that a ceasefire “can be achieved immediately if both governments were to issue instructions to their forces along the LoC to halt fire.”

“Such a ceasefire along the Line of Control should be acceptable to India since it would set at rest New Delhi’s frequently voiced fears that cross-border movement takes place under the cover of fire across the LoC,” he said.

Mr Akram said Pakistan was agreeable to an impartial international monitoring mechanism on both sides of the LoC to verify the claims made by India of cross-border infiltration.

He said that Pakistan desired that India should concurrently take steps to reduce and eliminate repression and human rights violations in occupied Kashmir, release Kashmiri prisoners, ease travel restrictions imposed on Kashmiri leaders and reduce the level of its forces deployed in Kashmir.

Mr Akram said that Pakistan was also prepared to discuss and evolve confidence-building measures with India, both political and military, in the conventional and nuclear fields. “Several confidence-building measures were in fact agreed upon between the two sides in Lahore in 1999. A start can be made to promote and implement these agreed measures,” he said.

   He expressed the hope that the UN and the Security Council would make all possible endeavours to facilitate resumption of a serious, substantive and sustained dialogue between India and Pakistan for peaceful resolution of all outstanding issues, notably the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.