NEW DELHI, Feb 21: India and Pakistan were close to reaching broad outlines of a solution to the Kashmir dispute, but could not clinch it due to “sheer bad luck”, former foreign minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri has said in an interview broadcast on Saturday.

He said there was an understanding on a joint mechanism that would comprise representatives from the two countries and Kashmiris from both sides of the divide. The agreements could not fructify because of “sheer bad luck”, he said on CNBC TV18’s India Tonight programme.

Mr Kasuri, who is here on a private visit, said that Pakistan was hoping that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would visit Islamabad in 2007, but he could not find time due to elections in Uttar Pradesh. The two sides had agreed on a fromuala to involve Kashmiri representatives in the talks about their future.

“Yes, you see...We wanted Kashmiris to be involved and India was not that keen, so we arrived at this modus vivendi that your Kashmiris would travel to Pakistan, our Kashmiris would travel here (India) and meet your leaders and your Kashmiris meet our leaders in an indirect form,” Mr Kasuri said when asked about Track-II talks to reach an understanding on the Kashmir issue.

“We would have preferred a direct Kashmiri participation,” he added.