November 4, 2003	Tuesday	Ramazan 8, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Nov 3: Pakistan on Monday again asked India to come to the negotiating table for talks on the basis of sovereign equality and in the interest of peace on the Kashmir dispute and other issues since there was no other way to resolve bilateral disputes.

Answering questions at his weekly press briefing, foreign office spokesman Masood Khan referred to a recent statement of Indian external affairs minister Yashwant Sinha and said New Delhi should not regard talks as a reward or favour to Islamabad.

Pakistan was not desperate for talks, but there was no alternative except to begin soon a composite dialogue process and take appropriate steps towards resolving the outstanding issues, including Kashmir, he added.

The spokesman regretted what he said was the “condescension tone” of the Indian leadership while evading Pakistan’s repeated calls for holding talks demanding that Islamabad should stop Kashmiri fighters from crossing the LoC from Pakistan’s side.

Mr Khan said there was no LoC crossing from the Pakistan side and urged India “to get off the high horse and get into talks without quibbling.”

He said India could raise its reservations about resuming overflights when the two sides met on Dec 2 for technical-level talks.

Asked whether President Pervez Musharraf would ask during his current discussions in Beijing for Chinese cooperation to counter Indian efforts to procure Awacs radar system, the spokesman said he was unable to go into the specifics of the Beijing talks but underscored that relations between Pakistan and China were based on multi-dimensional cooperation including defence matters.

About the current situation in Afghanistan, Mr Khan said he believed the Karzai government was in command. However, he conceded that concerns over warlords feudings were a long-term threat to Afghanistan.

In view of the evolving security situation, he said Pakistan was carrying out an aggressive patrolling on its side of the border. “We have created a security zone and depending upon intelligence, go there, attack and smoke out terrorist suspects,” he added.

The spokesman rejected as baseless the reports and statements appeared in the US media, alleging presence of the Taliban and Al Qaeda suspects in Quetta in large numbers who were trying to make inroads into Afghanistan.

He pointed out that a United Nations Security Council mission was presently in Kabul to look into the matters of security, reconstruction and peace in Afghanistan and devise means to cover the entire country with a security blanket with the assistance from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), extending the Karzai government writ beyond Kabul and Kunduz.

Asked for comments on reports suggesting the Karzai government and supporters were pressing recognition of the so-called Pukhtunistan along the Afghan-Pakistan border, the spokesman quipped: “The issue of Pukhtunistan is dead.”

Pakistan remained engaged with all “actors and players” on the issue of sending its troops to Iraq, the spokesman said, while admitting that the security situation in Iraq “was far from satisfactory.”