07 January 2004	Wednesday	14 Ziqa'ad 1424

LAHORE, Jan 6: Ruling PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Husain says that in view of the flexible attitude shown both by Pakistan and India there is now no harm in finding a solution to the Kashmir dispute through any mechanism other than the one provided in the UN resolutions.

In a press statement here on Tuesday, he said this was the first time that the two countries had agreed to resolve the dispute to their mutual satisfaction.

He said talks between President Musharraf and Prime Minister Vajpayee had established that both countries were serious in resolving all issues, including Kashmir's.

He said to make South Asia a peace zone, the US, Europe, Russia and China would also have to play their role for the solution to the Kashmir issue. The PML-Q chief supported President Musharraf's view that some elements were deliberately seeing the Indo-Pakistan talks in the negative light. However, he said, now the two countries would have to think about the future of their peoples as neither side could afford another war.

For a durable peace, Chaudhry Shujaat said both sides would have to follow the 'live-and-let-live' policy. He said the joint declaration issued at the end of the SAARC summit had watered down hopes of those who were propagating that the Kashmir issue had not been incorporated in it. In his opinion now a new chapter of tension-free Indo-Pakistan relations would begin.