ISLAMABAD, Oct 31: Pakistan on Friday, while welcoming the Indian response to confidence-building measures it proposed to improve relations between the two countries, described it as being partial as it excluded addressing core issues.

A Foreign Ministry statement also called upon New Delhi to resume dialogue with Pakistan to settle all disputes between the two countries, including the “core issue” of Kashmir.

“Pakistan welcomes India’s response to the proposals made by the Foreign Secretary ... though it remains partial and once again tries to exclude core issues,” a foreign ministry statement said.

“Pakistan urges India to ... respond positively to the proposals made by Pakistan to promote confidence between the two countries and facilitate greater people-to-people contacts, including between Kashmiris,” it said.

The statement accused India of “predicating” greater people- to-people contacts, including a resumption of the suspended train and bus service, on resumption of air links.

It said Pakistan had already indicated its willingness to attend the planned second round of civil aviation talks in New Delhi scheduled to be held on Dec 1-2, but making progress on air links a pre-condition for movement on other fronts signalled “hesitancy and (a) negative mindset”.

“Similarly India should not misconstrue steps proposed by Pakistan for the welfare of Kashmiris as well as modalities for Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service,” the statement said. “If India is serious it should not obstruct steps that may provide some relief to the Kashmiris ...”

The Pakistani statement said Islamabad’s offer was motivated by “a genuine desire to alleviate the sufferings of the Kashmiris, who ... remain a constant target of Indian repression.”

“Kashmir is certainly not a ‘particular region of India’ as stated by the Indian spokesman,” the statement said. “Such claims defy the UN Charter and the international law. Even Article 370 of the Indian Constitution recognised the disputed character of (the territory of the) Jammu and Kashmir. The complete shutdown observed by Kashmiris on Oct 27 should be any eye-opener. India should respond to the UN Charter as well as the wishes of the people of the Jammu and Kashmir.”

It said Pakistan would be willing to implement mutually agreed upon CBMs and would like to reiterate its willingness to “respond positively to any proposal, which is unconditional, substantive, sustained and is aimed at the resolution of all outstanding issues ...”

It said a genuine peace process would require an “immediate resumption of a meaningful dialogue” for the peaceful resolution of key issues.

“India should not stall the momentum towards abatement of tension by its refusal to resume a composite dialogue and by making baseless allegations. Indian government would be well advised to de-link its relations with Pakistan from its domestic politics.”

The foreign ministry urged India to eschew what it called diplomacy through the media and “undertake serious negotiations on the whole range of confidence-building measures through official channels.”

“Pakistan, however, notes with satisfaction that instead of stonewalling peace proposals made by Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, India has shown willingness to hold talks on some of the issues included in the composite dialogue agenda as well as on measures that would restore the relationship between the two countries to the pre-December 2001 status,” the statement said.

“This, however, is a limited objective. Pakistan calls upon India to resume dialogue with Pakistan to resolve all outstanding issues, especially the issue of Jammu and Kashmir.”