LAHORE, Feb 17: Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri believes that top Indian leaders are repeatedly ruling out the possibility of talks with Pakistan because of their internal political compulsions.
Talking to Dawn on Monday he, however, said the PML-Q government faced no such compulsions and was convinced that all outstanding issues could be resolved through a composite dialogue.
He was asked about the possibility of talks between the foreign ministers or other top leaders of the two countries during their presence in Kuala Lumpur in connection with the NAM conference, after statements in chorus by Indian leaders ruling out talks with Pakistan at any level.
Mr Kasuri is due to leave for the Malaysian capital on Feb 20, where the foreign ministers of the NAM countries are due to begin deliberations the following day.
President Gen Pervez Musharraf will be leading an 11-member delegation to Kuala Lumpur.
Mr Kasuri expressed optimism that ultimately Pakistan and India would resolve their disputes amicably. He called upon the forces of civil society in the two countries to strive towards that end.
The foreign minister said he was not unmindful of the fact that India was a pluralistic society and not in too distant a future such forces would reassert themselves.
Mr Kasuri said he firmly believed that reduction of poverty was the major problem of the subcontinent which could not be effectively tackled unless tension between the two nuclear powers was reduced. Any step which could help achieve this goal would be in the interest of the peoples of the two countries, he said.
He felt deeply troubled by Indian leaders’ rhetoric, which was also joined by Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha, that talks with Pakistan were out of question. Such statements, Mr Kasuri said, did not behove foreign ministers.
Mr Kasuri said “anti-talk” statements even by sophisticated former bureaucrat-turned-politician Yashwant Sinha and secular and socialist leader George Fernandes pointed towards a deeply troubling situation within Indian polity where seemingly liberal people were also compelled to repeat such “provocative” assertions.
He said the situation in Pakistan was quite different and it was for this reason that in his very first statement as foreign minister he had declared that he attached very high priority to improving relations with India.
It was ironical, he said, that the Indian government repeatedly said that fundamentalist forces were on the rise in Pakistan. Vehemently rebutting the impression, the foreign minister said that had it been so, Pakistan would have been under serious pressure to refuse talk with India.
But, he said, Pakistan had repeatedly stressed the need for initiating dialogue to resolve all outstanding problems between the two countries, including the issue of Kashmir.
Replying to a question about the possibility of resumption of the air, road and railway links between the two countries, the foreign minister held India responsible for the rupture and did not say when the situation would normalize.
He said it was the government of India which had taken the initiative of curbing links to meet the requirements of its domestic electoral agenda.
The expulsion of acting high commissioners and reduction in the diplomatic staff in the two countries was also forced by India, he claimed.
In response to a question about the Saarc conference, the foreign minister confirmed that the Pakistan government would soon give dates for the summit to be held in Islamabad.
Replying to a question, Mr Kasuri said the NAM was still an important organization, and assertions that it had lost relevance after the decline of the Warsaw Pact or Nato were misplaced.
The Kuala Lumpur conference would enable many leaders to hold bilateral talks on the sidelines and exchange views on matters of mutual interest.