Bilateral flexibility urged for solution: Musharraf says Pakistan ready to meet India halfway on Kashmir
By Raja Asghar and Nasir Jamal
LAHORE, Nov 20: President Pervez Musharraf on Saturday ruled out any unilateral stepping back by Pakistan from its historical stand over Kashmir
and asked India to show courage to find a solution acceptable to all parties to the festering dispute over the Himalayan region.
He told a conference of South Asian journalists that Pakistan would meet India halfway and could budge from its stand for holding a UN-mandated plebiscite in Kashmir only if New Delhi also gave up its insistence that the disputed former princely state was an integral part of the Indian union.
In an extempore speech inaugurating a two-day conference on "media and reconciliation in South Asia" organized by the South Asian Free Media Association (Safma), the president voiced unease over some recent statements that appeared to give a cool reception to his proposals for a debate over possible options outside the stated positions of the two countries.
But, he said, he hoped his feeling of discouraging signals from India were only a suspicion as he referred to such remarks by Indian leaders as the Jammu and Kashmir being an integral part of India, that a solution to the dispute had to be found within the Indian constitution, that there would be no redrawing of borders, and that New Delhi was prepared to listen if Pakistan proposals were given formally.
"It's not a one-way traffic...it's not a song that one has to sit and listen," the president said and added that Pakistan expected bilateral talking. "When we talk we expect answers, and we expect to move forward. There is no use of us talking and others listening," he added.
"We would like to meet India halfway. We will not move all the way. Halfway journey is from India," the president said. "We want to discuss...with sincerity to resolve disputes with flexibility and an open mind. We will leave our position when India leaves its position - never unilaterally. And last, we have the courage to go for a solution. On both sides we need courage to go for a solution."
The president said he believed "the courage to confront and fight is far easier than the courage to reconcile and accept" and "it needs real courage to extend a hand that resolves disputes".
President Gen Musharraf stressed that his proposal for a debate on various options for a solution to the Kashmir dispute than the plebiscite did not amount to giving up Pakistan's stand that Kashmiris must decide through the UN-mandated plebiscite whether to join Pakistan or India and he had two reasons to make the suggestion at an Iftar party during the holy month of Ramazan.
One reason, he said, was that he had not been able to get an answer to his queries for options for a solution acceptable to Pakistan, India and the Kashmiri people.
"I have asked this questions from dozens of... Kashmiris, Indians and Pakistanis - everyone from all walks of life - (but) I have not got an answer ever. Therefore, I thought I must give a direction towards a discussion so that people... at least know the nuances of the ground realities and they are able to discuss options."
He said he differed with people who thought there were no options acceptable to all the three parties and said: "I know there are options which can acceptable to all three."
He said the other reason for the proposal was that leadership in Pakistan and India could have a feel of people's views before discussing or agreeing on any options and avoid the possibility of any agreement being shot down by parliaments.
"Shouldn't the people or the assemblies or the politicians, or Kashmiris, everyone discusses options so that we can get a feel... of what people in India, Pakistan and Kashmiris want and then we reach an option?" the president asked.
"Now every country has its own environment. I think it was essential to throw it open, to the media, to everyone, to debate it, let me get a feel what do you want, what do you want me to say, how do you want me to go about the dialogue on options. I thought that is the way."
The president said it was a misconception that he had proposed any solution to the Kashmir dispute. "I have only identified geographic, ethnic and religious realities of Kashmir. That is all that I have done.
He called it a key statement by him that he thought could lead to a discussion that called for identifying seven regions in Kashmir for possible demilitarization and change of status. "I have set a direction to discuss options."
The president said he had never said that a whole area should be demilitarized. and added: "Once we identify a region, part or whole, that region should be demilitarized. That will give comfort to the people of Kashmir and then change (its) status."
The president also described it as a misconception that Pakistan had given up its stated position on Kashmir. "No we have not. There is a fine difference. I have been saying we must go beyond stated positions, we must show flexibility, but this is not unilateral."
He said Pakistan had not left its position for a plebiscite under the UN resolutions and added: "But if bilaterally India and Pakistan both want to move off (from stated positions), we will show flexibility and we may also have to meet somewhere halfway if we want to resolve disputes."
He said both India and Pakistan needed to step back from what he called their "maximalist positions" both India and Pakistan. "If we are not prepared to step back it cannot be done unilaterally and Pakistan will never do unilateral stepping back. Let that be very, very clear. We stand at the original position. We will wait and see bilateral shifting from their composition."
The president said he could "never imagine" reaching a solution without the involvement of Kashmiris. "Let that be very clear. Sooner or later we have to take Kashmiris along, whether immediately or a little later - earlier the better. That is our stand, because I can't imagine a solution to Kashmir problem without the people themselves involved."
Addressing journalists in the conference from Indian-held Kashmir, the president said: "Kashmiris have to be involved, I don't know when. Let me tell Kashmiris sitting here: we are for (your) involvement and we cannot reach a solution over your heads."
The president also held a separate meeting with a group of journalists working in the Indian-held Kashmir and told them Kashmiris had to be involved in the India-Pakistan dialogue at some stage and called for unity between the two factions of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference.
He also said that violence in the Indian-held Kashmir could end with a solution of the dispute.
PEACE PROCESS: About the revived India-Pakistan peace process, the president said Islamabad was trying to move forward on two channels - the confidence-building measures (CBMs) and the dialogue process.
He said Pakistan favoured the start of bus services across the Line of Control as one of the CBMs with a proviso that the travel should not be on country passports of Pakistan or India because Kashmir was a disputed territory. But he said "we are moving forward" on other possible travel documents. We are for opening of bus routes not only one, but may be two or three."
But he said the CBMs and the dialogue process must move in tandem. "One cannot be galloping and the other moving at snail's pace. That cannot be done. We cannot have confidence within ourselves unless we resolve disputes, which is unnatural, not doable. Therefore we have to move the CBMs and the dialogue process in tandem. When we talk of dialogue, it is on all issues or the conflicts - all disputes between India and Pakistan must be resolved."
But the president reiterated Pakistan's stated position that Kashmir was the core issue between India and Pakistan. "The core dispute is Kashmir because we fought three wars (there) and we have been killing each other on the Line of Control every day."
NOT UNIFOCAL MAN: The president said he was not a unifocal man as alleged in the Indian media for his stress on Kashmir and said: "We want to resolve each and every dispute with India. We are talking of Baghliar dam, we would like to involve ourselves in the Sir Creek (dispute)... but the core remains Kashmir."
The president recalled "good" joint statement after his meetings with former Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in Islamabad in January and with present Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New York in September and said he saw "light at the end of the tunnel".
"We have to move this process forward but lately you may have seen that vibes since then coming across to us are not encouraging. I don't believe in mincing words, I don't believe in diplomacy here, the vibes are not encouraging."
Welcoming media personalities from Saarc countries, the p;resident he was a firm believer in liberalization, freedom of speech and freedom of access to information and places.
He said all journalists belonging to Safma could visit any place in Pakistan as well as in Azad Kashmir. "We don't have anything to hide."
He said he really welcomed the first visit by Pakistani journalists to the Indian-held Kashmir last month and said to cheers: "We would certainly welcome any media persons from South Asia and specially from India to go to any part of Pakistan, including Kashmir."
WORLD TURMOIL: The president said the South Asian could be divorced from the world that he said was in turmoil because of disputes, extremism, terrorism, bomb blasts.
But he said the "unfortunate irony" was that all these conflicts involving Muslim countries had acquired a religious overtone despite being political in nature.
He also said Pakistan was concerned with all these troubles, particularly those in Kashmir and Afghanistan and its involvement in finding a solution.
"All this, whatever is happening in the world and in our region, has a direct fallout on Pakistan's domestic environment," he said and referred to Pakistan's role in the fight against terrorism.
The president regretted that while other regions of Asia benefited from economic cooperation, South Asia lacked such cooperation mainly because of India-Pakistan conflict and said: "My deduction is that we must reconcile. There has to be reconciliation of conflict between India and Pakistan, and then there will be intra-regional cooperation within South Asia and then only there will be inter-regional cooperation and South Asia will come into the loop of economic, commercial, trade ties in Asia.
"When we talk of intra-regional cooperation, we talk of preferential trade agreements, free trade agreements, most- favoured nation treatment. Pakistan is very much into this...But I would like to sound a word of caution: these are good words but we create barriers through tariff structures when MFN...become meaningless. So therefore, when we talk of all these, we need to be genuine and sincere in opening borders and not creating barriers through tariff."
POTENT SAARC: The president renewed Pakistan's proposal to make the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) more potent by changing its charter so it could help resolve bilateral disputes between its seven member countries.
"I would like to say in this context that Saarc has a role to play, has a key role to play. This is our organization, we must make it potent and we must make it more proactive to the extent... of conflict resolutions.
MODERATION: The president said his concept of enlightened moderation had "caught on" and said "I think that is the way forward for the world and for the Muslim world.
"It's a two-pronged strategy: one of the prongs to be delivered by the Muslim world rejecting extremism and militancy, going on the path of socio-economic development. But most important part is the second parts to be delivered by the West, particularly. by the United States, to resolve political disputes and help us in our socio-economic development. Success of this operation is in both prongs succeeding. If one of the prongs fails, the operation will never succeed."
FOREIGN MILITANTS: The president referred to Pakistan's fight against what he called "ill effects of the turbulence in the world and in the region on our domestic environment".
He said Pakistan was moving on a dual track - political and military - in the fight against foreign militants hiding in the tribal area near the Afghan border.
