01 November 2004	Monday	17 Ramazan 1425

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ISLAMABAD, Oct 31: The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) has rejected as baseless and contrary to facts the remarks of Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri that the PPP was opposed to defusing tensions with India through dialogue.

In a statement issued here on Sunday, PPP spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar said there was a difference between dialogue with India and the specific Kashmir division proposals made by President Gen Pervez Musharraf.

"The PPP policy of improving relations with India, without prejudice to the Kashmir dispute, is manifest from the signing of the Shimla Agreement in 1972 and December 1988 agreement not to attack each other's nuclear installations," he said.

The spokesman said the PPP had been called a security risk for its farsighted vision, which was now being embraced by all its then critics.

He said there were two issues involved: the first was for dialogue, confidence building and creating a larger South Asian market to improve the plight of the people. On this, there is a national consensus.

The second issue is the proposal by Gen Musharraf to debate a new formula of division at variance with the UN Security Council resolutions on Kashmir.

The PPP opposed this approach as premature and unlikely to succeed while diluting Pakistan's historic stand without a quid pro quo, he said.