Author: B. Muralidhar Reddy
Publication: The Hindu
Date: June 6, 2003
URL: http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2003/06/06/stories/2003060604410100.htm
The Pakistan Prime Minister, Mir
Zafarullah Khan Jamali, has said that the Kashmir "dispute" could not be
resolved by converting the Line of Control into a "permanent" border.
Mr. Jamali made these observations
on Wednesday while addressing a gathering at the National Defence College.
"A peaceful settlement of the Kashmir issue could not be as simplistic
as recognising the Line of Control as a permanent border.''
It is not for the first time that
Pakistan has talked against conversion of the LoC into a permanent border
since the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, made the peace offer on
April 17 and 18. Earlier, the Pakistan Information Minister, Sheikh Rashid
Ahmed, had said that the "struggle" of the last 55 years would be futile
if Islamabad were to agree to conversion of the LoC into a border.
Mr. Jamali said any solution to
the Kashmir issue should be encompassing all the parties involved. The
position of Pakistan was that besides India and Pakistan, Kashmiris were
party to the "dispute". He said a peaceful and stable South Asia would
enable both the countries to face the biggest challenge of combating poverty,
hunger and diseases that confronted this region.
He expressed the hope that India
would respond positively to Pakistan's peace overtures for initiating meaningful
dialogues to resolve all outstanding issues, including the core issue of
Kashmir.
A success of the dialogue process
would depend on sincere reciprocity from India, Mr. Jamali said. He said
his Government remained committed to a "modern, progressive and forward
looking" Pakistan, as visualised by the Father of the Nation and it would
continue to strive for the creation of a welfare State, to translate this
vision into reality.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Government
would be sending a delegation to India next week to work out the modalities
for the resumption of the bus service between the two countries. The delegation
will comprise senior officials of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism,
a representative of the Foreign Office and technical officials of the Pakistan
Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC).
India, on Tuesday, said that it
was prepared to resume the suspended Delhi-Lahore-Delhi bus service on
July 1.
Following the announcement, the
Delhi Transport Corporation sent a fax message to the PTDC, inviting a
technical committee.
The PTDC's three-member technical
committee would comprise its manager (accounts), deputy managing- director
and Pakistan Tours Limited manager. The committee will discuss its Indian
counterparts the fare rates, number of buses to be plied between the two
countries and the timings of the bus operations.
