ISLAMABAD, May 28: Chairman of National Assembly’s Kashmir Committee Maulana Fazlur Rehman said on Monday that although there was no military solution to the Kashmir issue, the problem would have to be solved for the sake of durable peace in South Asia.

He was referring to a statement of Indian Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Ayar that there was no military solution to the Kashmir issue and as such both Pakistan and Indian needed to increase trade and promote sports and cultural exchanges for ensuring peace in the regain.

The JUI-F chief said the 65-year history of Pakistan-Indian relations indicated that settlement of the Kashmir was necessary for lasting peace in the subcontinent.

During all these years, he added, there had been some trade as well as exchange of delegations, but peace could not be maintained. “Resources have been spent on military build-up, instead of economic wellbeing of the masses of the two countries.”

Maulana Fazl said the Indian minister had rightly said that there was no military solution to the Kashmir issue and, therefore, India should withdraw its forces from the occupied Kashmir and remove ‘black laws’ enforced there.

He said Pakistan wanted the issue resolved in accordance with the wishes of Kashmiri people and not that of India which insisted that the state of Jammu and Kashmir was an integral part of it and there was no movement for freedom in the occupied region. “If there is no problem in occupied Kashmir, why India has deployed about 800,0000 troops there,” he said.