October 28, 2006	Saturday	Shawwal 4, 1427

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LAHORE, Oct 27: Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar says the Kashmir issue is a challenge for the entire world from political and human rights point of view and the international community should persuade India to solve it.

He said at a meeting of the Pakistan Institute for World Peace held at Alhamra Hall III on the ‘World peace and responsibilities of Pakistan’ here on Friday that relations with India had always been a challenge for Pakistan’s foreign policy owing to doubts and suspicions. The Kashmir issue was the main reason. It had affected the regional peace and frustrated the efforts for the alleviation of poverty and economic progress of the subcontinent.

“We do not want to enter into any arms race, conventional or nuclear, which will destroy both the countries. We should work for the economic uplift of the people and not for the destruction of each other.”

He said the peace process had started in January 2004 which had helped improve the strained relations between the two countries with their bilateral trade exceeding $800 million and creating a section of people desirous of peace.

He said lack of trust and confidence in each other had been the main hurdle in peace talks between the two countries. At the third round of talks Pakistan had stressed on the need for expediting the efforts for the solution of bilateral issues, including Kashmir, Siachin, Sir Creek and water, but the blasts at Mumbai in July had resulted in postponement of foreign secretaries’ talks scheduled to be held same month. However, the meeting between President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at Havana decided to resume talks and the joint statement issued by them was, indeed, a positive development towards peaceful solution of the Kashmir and other issues.

The Makhdoom said terrorism was an international issue which could be tackled through joint efforts by the world community. War against terrorism was the need of the hour and it should help promote international solidarity. “We hope this war will help establish world peace which is in the interest of all countries.”

Of all the countries of the world the tragic incident of 9/11 had most affected Pakistan. Pakistan was playing the role of front state and “we have succeeded in winning the war. We have also played a key role in combating Al-Qaeda whose important leaders have either been killed or arrested.”

Pakistan’s prestige had enhanced in the world for its role the credit of which should be given to President Musharraf, he added.

He said while war was going against terrorism, it must be ensured that this should not turn into a war between the West and Islam, which could endanger the world peace. Freedom, democracy, tolerance and justice were the golden principles of all the religions and people of the world.

Mr Bakhtiar said Pakistan had strongly rejected the mischievous notion of “Islamic terrorism” spread by a section of people because Islam believed that a terrorist has no religion. “Islam is the religion of peace and stands for high morals, justice, international order and tolerance.”

The minister said for Pakistan another big challenge after Kashmir was the establishment of peace in Afghanistan. Both Pakistan and Afghanistan had common traditions of religion, customs and mutual interests. They had come closer to each other during the past five years and their bilateral trade had exceeded $1,200 million. Pakistan was still hosting about three million Afghan refugees and was playing an important role in reconstruction of Afghanistan for which it had extended financial assistance of Rs250 million so far. Both the countries had remained engaged in war against terrorism. Yet there were certain misunderstandings among them on security issues.

He said Pakistan was not at all responsible for the deteriorating internal situation of Afghanistan. A large number of Pakhtoons equipped with arms were living along the border that needed no military training. There was abundance of weapon with them. They lacked religious tolerance and were mostly poor and uneducated. These were the main causes of the bad law and order situation in the tribal areas.

He said Pakistan’s recent agreement with the tribal leaders of North Waziristan was an important positive step towards checking the cross border terrorism and subversive activities and it would help put an end to the influence of Al-Qaeda and Taliban in the area. He hoped the Afghan government would also take similar steps in its country.

Other speakers included Punjab Tourism Minister Mian Aslam Iqbal, former CPNE president Mujibur Rahman Shami, PIWP vice-president Dr Shafiq Jullandhari, World Bank’s adviser on environment and former chief conservator of forests Dr Muhammad Afzal, PIWP general secretary Zulfiqar Ahmad, Prof Sajjad Naseer, Faisal Afzal, Dr Zulfiqar Khan from the NWFP, Pakistani community leader in the US Talib Cheema, former PMA president Dr Ashraf Nizami and columnist Mujahid Mansoori.