India terms Bilawal’s Kashmir statement ‘far from reality’

Published September 21, 2014
PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari. — File photo
PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari. — File photo

NEW DELHI: India on Saturday described as “far from reality” the reported comment of Pakistan People’s Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari that his party would get back entire Kashmir for his country.

New Delhi also asserted that integrity and unity of the country was “non-negotiable”, the Press Trust of India said.

“We are in the process of looking forward and looking forward does not mean that our borders will be changed. We made it very clear that as far as we are concerned, the integrity and unity of India is non-negotiable,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said.

He said the comment was “far from reality which takes us back into the past century”.

Mr Zardari was quoted as telling his party colleagues on Friday that the PPP would get back the entire Kashmir from India.

“I will take back Kashmir, all of it, and I will not leave behind a single inch of it because, like the other provinces, it belongs to Pakistan,” he said.

When he made these remarks, PTI said he was flanked by former prime ministers Yousuf Raza Gilani and Raja Pervez Ashraf.

The PPP officially wants good ties with India.

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2014

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