LAHORE, April 30: Pakistan has capability to defend the Ummah, says Federal Information Minister Sheikh Rashid.

Speaking at the Madar-i-Millat handicrafts’ exhibition here on Wednesday, he said the nation would hear such a good news about its military prowess within a year that no one would dare to look at the country with bad intentions.

He said India could be forced to come to the negotiation table within days on the Kashmir issue if Muslim countries decided not to hire Indian labour until the issue was not solved.

About Indian premier Vajpayee’s stance that he would hold talks with Pakistan’s president and not with the prime minister, he said both Gen Pervez Musharraf and Zafarulah Jamali had identical views on all issues and they were pursuing the same policies.

About BJP leaders statement, he said it was the Hindu fundamentalist entity which had its own agenda for elections. He, however, said that neither there was any pressure on Islamabad about its nuclear assets nor was it ready to tolerate any such move.

Reiterating his claim that the Kashmir issue would be settled within a couple of years, he, however, said some people did not want to see Gen Musharraf getting the credit for solving the decades old problem.

Sheikh Rashid said the country was facing threats more on internal than on external front. Wrong messages were being sent from here to the world as Jewish and Indian lobbies were propagating that Pakistan would be the next US target, he added.

Commenting on the government-opposition talks on the LFO, he said these were being held with the support of Gen Musharraf.

He said the formation of a joint committee on the issue indicated that both the parties had agreed to show flexibility in this regard.

He said Gen Musharraf himself had said that he did not want to keep the two offices — presidency and COAS —- but he was compelled to do so because of the present world situation.