RAWALPINDI, Dec 23: President Gen Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday stated that as a result of confidence-building measures an environment had been created for the start of dialogue to resolve all disputes between India and Pakistan, including Kashmir.

“The environment has been created. We played our role, they (the Indians) also played their role. Now the way forward, certainly, is starting a composite dialogue, and this composite dialogue must include Kashmir,” he emphasized.

Addressing the annual reception dinner of the Pakistani Americans Political Action Committee, the president said Pakistan took major decisions such as the announcement of ceasefire along the Line of Control and the resumption of air links.

“It was our magnanimity. It was our spirit of developing confidence for the sake of peace and for the sake of harmony in (bilateral) relations,” he said. India should realize that it was incurring huge financial loss due to its unilateral decision of ban on overflights, he maintained.

Gen Musharraf said Pakistan would encourage the recent “rapprochement and thaw, and we will go more than half the way to encourage it...this is my message to the Indians”.

The president said he looked forward to addressing the issue of moving ahead from this good start when the Indian prime minister visited Pakistan next month “because we are at a start point and this is a beginning.”

The way forward is starting a composite dialogue, he stressed. “We have taken a good start. Let us know when that composite dialogue starts and let that composite dialogue include Kashmir.”

President Musharraf expressed the hope that the LFO issue would be resolved shortly. He said although he believed that the LFO was totally legal, yet in national interest “I think we must come to a conclusion and put the issue aside.”—APP