NEW DELHI, Dec 17: Stressing sustained dialogue between New Delhi and Islamabad to resolve all outstanding issues, Pakistan’s high commissioner here, Aziz Ahmad Khan, has said that Kashmir is the only central issue between the two countries, while others are minor irritants.

In an interview to a private Indian TV channel, Mr Khan underscored the need of composite and meaningful dialogue to address all outstanding issues, including the Kashmir dispute.

In response to a question, he said violence in held Kashmir from both sides was unfortunate but expressed the hope that it would disappear when the dialogue process started.

He said Pakistan had always been calling for peace and dialogue between the two countries. However incidents like Siachen and Kargil took place in the absence of dialogue, he said.

About the Kashmir dispute, he said: “We cannot talk about the solutions before the talks start. Let both the countries start serious and sustained dialogue and then involve the Kashmiris. Later both countries should move according to the wishes of the Kashmiri people. Whatever is the solution, we will find that out. This is what President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s roadmap indicated.”

“We have been saying that the only solution is through the dialogue process and the international community has supported that contention. We are happy that process now appears to be starting,” he said.

About a statement of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto on soft borders and shared sovereignty in Jammu and Kashmir, he said that was an individual’s opinion.

He said all the member states of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation had good intentions for making it a success. He said the Association of South East Asian Nations had taken a lot of time in making real progress.

He said fencing by India along the Line of Control was in violation of an agreement signed between the two countries in 1949.

In response to a question on monitoring of bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad by the United Nations, he said the procedures and modus operandi needed to be worked out.

Asked why Pakistan was not granting the most favoured nation status to India, the high commissioner said it was not important since the South Asian Free Trade Agreement was round the corner.

He said that despite the extension of MFN status by India to Pakistan, “our exports to India are 25 per cent of the Indian exports to Pakistan.”

He said India’s “unilateral” action of suspending overflights had cut Pakistan’s air operations to Singapore, Kathmandu, Dhaka and Bangkok.

He said Pakistan had taken steps to keep the peace process moving.

He said it was difficult to recapture the market which Pakistan lost owing to Indian actions. He said Pakistan wanted to have some understanding so that such economically damaging events that were detrimental to people-to-people contacts should not recur.

About the freedom movement in Kashmir, he said: “When the uprising started, we were surprised by its spontaneity and intensity.”

Terming the freedom struggle indigenous, Mr Khan said Pakistan had continued to extend moral and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri’s just struggle for the last 56 years.

Replying to a question on Afghanistan, the high commissioner said it was Pakistan’s support to the coalition forces, which made bringing down of the Taliban regime possible.

He said Islamabad continued to extend support to the Bonn Agreement and a commission of Pakistan, Afghanistan and the coalition forces discussed the security situation regularly.

He said Pakistan supported the coalition forces and the Kabul government and the problems taking place in Afghanistan were internal.

He said the Pakistan-Afghan border was in the most difficult terrain and the government was offering complete help in checking movement across it.—APP