Tuesday, Oct 28, 2003
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India & World
By B. Muralidhar Reddy
The Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman, Masood Khan, alleged that "war- mongering" by India was "outrageous" and said it should be avoided. "We are in the business of peace and not war, sanity prevails here." He was responding to a reported statement by Mr. Fernandes. "War mongering is done by psychopaths that needs to be avoided," Mr. Khan said. Quoting Mr. Sinha's statement that the proposals were "win-win" for India whether Pakistan accepted or rejected them, the spokesman said, "We are baffled by the statement". He wondered whether the proposals were all "pomp and show". Mr. Khan said that one day they [India] come up with the proposals, the next day they describe them as "a tactical move. It is patent insincerity, a public-relationing, hoodwinking the international community. It confirms our worst fears that this initiative is to be used as a tactical ploy." Mr. Khan termed Mr. Fernandes' remarks as "intemperate". "Delhi is playing good cop and bad cop... gun in one hand and a piece of paper with 12 proposals in the other... they are asking us to negotiate on gunpoint... this is outrageous." Mr. Fernandes was either trying to "gain support or boost the morale of his troops by such statements". The offer was contradictory and did not make sense. To a question, Mr. Khan said: "the peace process has not yet started. Attempts to start a dialogue are not going to succeed as we have to have a simultaneous movement from both the sides". He referred to Mr. Sinha's statement in which he had ruled out any meeting between the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and the Pakistani leadership. Pakistan, on the other hand, has been calling for an engagement between the leaders.
`CBMs a repeat of Jamali's proposals'
Mr. Khan said India was trying to take credit for the confidence-building measures, most of which were originally proposed by the Pakistan Prime Minister, Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, on May 6. "Recycled, rehashed and old," were the phrases he repeatedly used at a press meet to describe the CBMs. Mr. Khan complained that India did not seek to tackle the contentious issues such as Kashmir, Siachin and nuclear security. "We are disappointed to note that India has sidelined Kashmir," Mr. Khan said. He made it clear that without addressing these issues, there could not be progress towards normalisation of our relations. He said there was no change in Pakistan's policy on Kashmir. His assertion that most of the CBMs were proposed by Pakistan only led to a barrage of questions from correspondents that in such a case what was holding back a response from Islamabad. "There are some sensitive issues and we need to give a serious thought before giving our response." There were indications from the spokesman that Pakistan might not be inclined to accept the proposal to run a bus service from Srinagar to Muzaffarabad. Mr. Khan said Kashmir was a disputed territory and allowing a bus service from there to Pakistan side of Kashmir had implications. He chose not to elaborate on the point. Mr. Khan came down heavily, in response to questions, on the alleged remarks made by the Defence Minister, George Fernandes, and the External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha, and maintained that they had sought to project the CBMs as a tactical move to corner Islamabad. He said peace talks could not be held at gunpoint. Asked to comment on Mr. Fernandes' statement that Pakistan should either come to the negotiating table or to the battlefield, he said this kind of war mongering should be avoided, as it is dangerous and insane.
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