ISLAMABAD, June 20: Pakistan on Monday declared that focus in the ongoing dialogue process with India remained on the Jammu and Kashmir issue. In reply to a question at his weekly news briefing, Foreign Office spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani said the “main focus remains on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute” and added that Pakistan had repeatedly emphasized that inclusion of Kashmiris in the dialogue process was imperative for a lasting solution to the dispute.

He announced that the secretary-level talks on the Wullar Barrage issue had been rescheduled for June 28-29 and the delegation would now proceed to New Delhi on June 27. He held that the meeting, initially slated for June 24-25, had to be rescheduled due to a ‘small’ logistic difficulty.

The spokesman also unveiled the schedule of other engagements within the composite dialogue framework which he said would culminate in a meeting between the two foreign ministers in September.

Pakistan, he said, had proposed that experts-level talks on nuclear and conventional confidence-building measures be held either in the last week of July or in the first week of August in New Delhi. “We are awaiting a response from New Delhi.”

The culture secretaries of the two countries would meet in Islamabad in July and interior secretaries would hold talks in Delhi in the last week of August, the spokesman said. The two commerce secretaries would also meet in August in Delhi to discuss economic and trade issues, he added.

The second round of the composite dialogue process would be completed in September when the foreign secretaries and foreign ministers of the two countries would meet to review it.

There was nothing unusual about backchannel diplomacy, he said in reply to a question about the recent meeting between Indian National Security adviser L.K Lamba and his Pakistani counterpart Tariq Aziz in Dubai.

The spokesman clarified that President Gen Pervez Musharraf during his visit to Australia and New Zealand had not talked about autonomy as a solution to the Jammu and Kashmir issue.

The president, he pointed out, had repeatedly mentioned certain elements that would constitute a lasting solution to the dispute. In this context he referred to the president’s constant emphasis on the involvement of the Kashmiris in the dialogue process and the demilitarization of the area.

“There is absolutely no change in the principled position of Pakistan with regard to the Jammu and Kashmir issue,” he stressed, quoting Article 257 of Pakistan’s Constitution which said the relationship with the state of Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan would be determined in accordance with the wishes of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

Asked whether Pakistan would accept elections in occupied Kashmir at some stage if held under a different mechanism as had been hinted by Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq during his visit here, the spokesman said it was ‘just an idea’ and then hastened to add: “Pakistan’s position is very clear. Anything acceptable to the people of Kashmir would be acceptable to Pakistan.”

SHEIKH RASHID’S VISIT: Answering a question about Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed’s planned visit to occupied Kashmir on June 30, Mr Jilani said: “My understanding is that the list of intending passengers who have to travel on the next Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus will be exchanged by the designated authorities on June 21 and Sheikh Rashid sahib’s name would be there on the list.”