WASHINGTON, June 1: The Pakistan ambassador in Washington has reiterated Islamabad’s proposal for the establishment of a neutral, impartial mechanism on the Line of Control so that the question of incursions could be verified and monitored.

Appearing on CNN’s Crossfire programme, Dr Maleeha Lodhi also recalled Gen Pervez Musharraf’s pledge that Pakistan would not allow its territory to be used to launch an attack against any country, and said the Pakistan leader had already taken a considerable political risk in cracking down against Al Qaeda and militant organizations.

She said the issue of terrorism must be put in context, and it should be realized that the war in Afghanistan could not have achieved the results it had without Pakistan’s cooperation. Replying to insinuations that Al Qaeda might have established camps in Pakistan to launch terrorist attacks in Kashmir, Dr Lodhi pointed out that Pakistan had extended full cooperation to the US-led coalition to block Al Qaeda activists from slipping into Pakistan and handed over hundreds of them to the United States. The president had met all the pledges he had made.

Nor, she said, should the Kashmir issue be stripped of its historical, legal, moral and political context in the current talk about war on terrorism. Pakistan had always advocated the path of peace and negotiations.

In reply to a question about why Pakistan did not agree to a non-first-use pledge on nuclear weapons, Dr Lodhi pointed out that the United States and NATO also did not subscribe to this principle. Pakistan did not advocate the first use of force of any kind and believed in the principle of non-use of force in accordance with the UN Charter.