September 27, 2003	Saturday	Rajab 29, 1424

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UNITED NATIONS, Sept 26: Decrying India’s rejection of peace initiative proposed by President Musharraf in his UN General Assembly address, Pakistan on Thursday hoped that “New Delhi, will reflect and will come to the conclusion that dialogue is the only answer to the problems that respond positively to the offer.”

Exercising his right of reply, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United Nations, Munir Akram, said Indian prime minister’s response to the peace proposals was “disappointing to Pakistan and the international community.

“By this negative response, we have lost another opportunity to build peace in South Asia.”

Expressing the hope that “cooler heads” would prevail in New Delhi, Akram said: “Pakistan’s offer of help to promote a cessation of hostilities within occupied Kashmir was sadly misconstrued by the prime minister of India as an admission of guilt,” adding, “This is preposterous.”

He said: “The dialogue, which Pakistan has proposed to India, is a dialogue for peace. It is not a favour to Pakistan. It is the only mechanism envisaged by our Charter to promote the easing of tension and the resolution of conflict.”

Expressing regret over India’s rejection of peace offer, he said: “This reflects the negative stance of the ruling party, the BJP, in India,” noting that “the purpose of the so-called hardliners in New Delhi, is not cross-border terrorism. It is designed to utilize electoral gain for the Indian ruling party for the forthcoming state elections.”

“In his address to the General Assembly yesterday, the President of Pakistan offered an ‘action plan’ for peace between Pakistan and India. He invited India to open a dialogue with Pakistan. He offered a reciprocal ceasefire along the Line of Control in Kashmir. He offered to encourage a ceasefire within Indian occupied Kashmir. He offered enhanced monitoring of the Line of Control on both sides in Kashmir and he proposed the maintenance of arms balance both in India and Pakistan,” Mr Akram said.

On Indian’ Prime Minister Vajpayee’s charge that Pakistan was sponsoring terrorism in Kashmir, Mr Akram said: “The Kashmiri struggle for self-determination, seeks to realize the implementation of the resolutions of the Security Council calling on India to hold a plebiscite to enable the Kashmiri people to determine their own destiny.”

Pakistan’s chief delegate said that the Kashmiri struggle in which some 80,000 people have died “cannot be denigrated or described as terrorism.

Referring to UN Secretary-General’s recent statement in which he noted: “Internationally, we are seeing an increasing use of what I call the ‘T-word’ — terrorism — to demonize political opponents, to throttle freedom of speech and the press, and to delegitimize legitimate political grievances.”

Mr Akram accused India’s ruling party BJP of perpetrating terrorism and supporting extremist groups in India who are threatening to kill minorities in the country adding and they “run free.”

“This is the party one of whose members assassinated Gandhi. It is the party which destroyed the Babri Mosque, a great citadel of the Muslim culture in India, five members of it were convicted the other day of this crime, although the deputy leader of the party was let off. At recent electoral rally, the BJP has threatened to destroy 3,000 other mosques across India.”

INDIAN REPLY: Reacting, to Pakistan’s reply, India’s UN ambassador V. Nambiar claimed that “it was Pakistan which had rejected talks offers, because they think, India is not sincere.”

He claimed that Pakistan’s foreign policy is based on “double speak and pretensions.”