ISLAMABAD, Jan 29: Pakistan reiterated here on Tuesday it would not be the first to initiate military action along the international border with India, working boundary and the Line of Control, and reaffirmed its willingness to start talks with India over the phased withdrawal of troops “from their forward positions to their peacetime locations.”

At a press briefing, foreign office spokesman Aziz Ahmad Khan, in a brief statement, recapitulated the position Pakistan has had held vis-a-vis the massive military stand-off between the two countries since late December, and recalled various initiatives Islamabad took to de-escalate border tension and lower the threat of a looming horrendous military outbreak in South Asia.

He said: “Pakistan will not be the first to initiate military action anywhere along the international border, the working boundary and the Line of Control. However, if attacked, Pakistan will reply with full force.

“Pakistan is willing to start talks with India over a phased withdrawal of troops on both sides from their forward position to their peacetime locations. Once an agreement has been reached, troops should be withdrawn within a specific timeframe;

“This would be followed by a comprehensive dialogue on the Kashmir dispute as well as all other issues;

“UNMOGIP (UN military observers group for Kashmir) should be beefed up in order to credibly monitor the Line of Control;

“India should allow access to human rights groups and international media to visit occupied Kashmir in order to monitor the human rights situation there;

“Pakistan is willing to restore, on a reciprocal basis, air, rail and road communication links that had been severed as a result of India decisions.”

The spokesman summed up the steps and offers Pakistan had made thus far, a day after Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and other Indian leaders expressed their indifference towards Pakistan offers and measures to meet the Indian security concerns, and what the spokesman said India’s “negative response on absurd excuses.”

However, he stressed Pakistan remained patient and steadfast in its endeavours to defuse the heightened tension between the two countries, pointing out that Pakistan efforts and position had earned large international support and backing which would hopefully result in positive results. Now the ball was in India’s court “as we have already done our best,” he said.

General Rashid Qureshi, chief of the ISPR, who was also at the briefing, flatly rejected the press reports or statements, saying the Karachi airport or any other such installations had been allowed to be overtaken by American forces.

Responding to a question, he averred that Karachi airport had been permitted to be used for facilitating overseas flights bringing aboard wide-bodied aircraft relief and assistance material and men for Afghanistan’s reconstruction programmes and observing all necessary laws and regulations applicable in Pakistan.

He said while the bulk of airport handling was being carried out by the Pakistanis, under arrangements agreed to by the Pakistan government when joining the international coalition and the UN efforts to deal with the problems in Afghanistan, some logistic functions and work were being also allowed to be done by the UN-sponsored International Security Assistance Force. They, too, were subject to country’s laws, he added.

Aziz Khan said Islamabad had now received partial information and report from the Red Cross about the number and names and locations of Pakistanis held as prisoners in Afghanistan, and the government would soon take up with the Kabul administration the issue of their return to Pakistan.

AFP ADDS: LAUGHABLE: Pakistan on Tuesday rejected as “absurd” India’s claim of sovereignty over Azad Kashmir.

Foreign Office spokesman Khan said India’s claim, repeated this week by Vajpayee, was laughable and hardly justified a serious response.

“It is unfortunate that the goodwill shown by us, despite all the steps that we have taken, the response still has been negative,” he told the press briefing, referring to Islamabad’s crackdown on Islamic extremists and repeated calls for dialogue.

“Absurd excuses are sometimes being made not to come to the talks. All that we can say is that we will remain patient and steadfast to settle all issues.”

Military spokesman Qureshi also rejected as absurd reports that India wanted any talks on the future of the divided Himalayan state to discuss handing over Azad Kashmir to India. Vajpayee said on Monday any future talks on Kashmir would have to involve the issue of handing over “Pakistan-occupied Kashmir” to India.

“Kashmir is an integral part of India and we have a legal and constitutional right over it.”

APP adds: “This is a preposterous demand,” said Qureshi when asked about a Washington Post report that India has conveyed to Pakistan through America that it needs some tracts of land on Pakistani side of LoC, apparently “to block the ‘infiltrators’ from this side to the Indian occupied side.”

He said this was the first time he ever heard of such a preposterous demand and “nobody has conveyed it to us.”

“We have never heard it from the Indians and if the Indians have conveyed it to someone, the United States has not considered it appropriate to pass it on to us,” he added.

If at all somebody has made this demand: “They know what the answer is going to be.”