LAHORE, June 18: Indian parliamentarians’ delegation leader and columnist Kuldip Nayar has said that the Kashmir issue should not be solved on the basis of religion.

He was speaking at a meeting of the Peoples Forum for Peace and Democracy at the auditorium of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan on Wednesday.

He said that the people of Kashmir should be associated in any talks held to solve the Kashmir dispute. He recalled that the former chief minister of the Punjab Shahbaz Sharif had suggested to the then Indian Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal during Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s visit to Lahore in February, 1998, that the Hindu majority area of Jammu and the Buddhist majority area of Laddakh should be given over to India and the Muslim majority area of the Kashmir valley to Pakistan. Mr Badal had given no response to the suggestion.

He said: “I was present there and I had even then said that the Kashmir state should not been divided on the basis of Muslim and non-Muslim majority areas.”

He said that as and when friendship developed between India and Pakistan and all doubts and apprehensions dispelled the Kashmir issue would be solved. He said that this friendship and normalization of the relations between the two countries had become all the more necessary after the Iraq war and the continued hostility between them was not in their interest. He said that during the clash between India and China in 1962 the late Shah of Iran had written a letter to Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Ayub Khan for a joint defence by the both Pakistan and India.

He recalled that when the Quaid-i-Azam had visited the Law college of Lahore in 1945, he had put a question to the Quaid, asking him what if any third power attacked Pakistan and India. The Quaid’s reply was ‘blood is thicker than water’. He said that in such a situation Indo-Pakistan friendship and cordial relationship would be an essential requirement for both the countries.

Mr Nayar said that both the countries had been at loggerheads against each other for the past 55 years and asked for how long they would continue their hostility. How should they go forward? He suggested that the passport and visa system between the two countries should be abolished to enable the people to meet one another freely. He said that Mahatma Gandhi had given equal respect to Hindus and Muslims and he had laid down his life for being friendly with the Muslims. He had been insisting upon the government to pay Rs660 million to Pakistan as its share.

Rajya Sabha member Shahid Siddiqui said that migration of Indian Muslims to Pakistan had left the Indian Muslims without leadership and they had to suffer a great deal. He said that about 180 million Muslim population of India, more than Pakistan’s population, had fought for their rights and now they felt themselves quite secure and safe.

He said that the sad incidents of Gujarat and desecration of the Babri Mosque had occurred because secularism had not yet taken its roots in India. He said that Indo-Pakistan friendship was the need of the hour.

Lok Sabha members Panwal Kumar Banal from Chandigarh, Ram Das Athawale from Maharashatra also emphasised the need for normalization of relations and friendship between the two countries.

Former Punjab chief minister Hanif Ramay asked how long India and Pakistan would continue their hostility to the detriment interest of their people. He said that when England, France and Germany, which had deep rooted enmity and hostility resulting into bloody wars among them, could forget and forgive and unite into European Union, merging their currencies into Euro, which was posing a great challenge to US dollar, why could not India and Pakistan give up their hostility and develop friendship. He said that Kashmir and all other issues could be solved once friendship was developed.

Forum president Dr Mubashir Hasan said that the people of both the countries wanted peace and friendship but not their rulers who had vested interests. He said that the rulers wanted to continue confrontation for their own benefits. He said that the rulers were using the weapon of nationalism for confrontation. He said that the number of ‘crore-patis’ had increased in Pakistan from 15 in 1963 to 4,815 in 2000, thanks to the confrontation and the number of account holders of over Rs6 million had increased from 1929 in 1990 to 8,233 in 2000 and the number of federal government employees almost doubled in 1970 from 1.1 million (united Pakistan) to 2.3 million in 2000. Similar was the situation in India.