KARACHI, Dec 10: Speakers at meeting of Shura Hamdard, Karachi on Friday urged the government not to set aside the UN resolutions on the Kashmir issue in talks with India, as these are sheet anchors for Pakistan's stand on Kashmir.

Speaking at a meeting chaired by former Sindh Ombudsman Justice (Retd) Haziqul Khairi, former ambassador Mehdi Masud said that despite exchange of delegations, goodwill groups, numerous CBMs and composite dialogue, India maintained its "rigid and unrelenting stand on Kashmir".

India hoping to normalize ties with Pakistan, would irresistibly put Kashmir on the back burner, he said. He viewed that Pakistan while maintaining peace with India, focusing on economic and social development, should ensure it was linked clearly with the progress on Kashmir, which was certainly not happening at the moment.

"It is by reaching a just settlement on Kashmir that India can best protect the positive yield of the ongoing normalization process," he added.

Masud said that a debate on various possible solutions to the Kashmir issue, given by President Pervez Musharraf, could have served useful, had India not categorically brushed aside them. Mr Khairi said the main reason of poverty and illiteracy in both India and Pakistan was the Kashmir dispute. - PPI