Monday, Dec 01, 2003
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By B. Muralidhar Reddy
The declaration by Gen. Musharraf ends the 17-month row between Islamabad and New Delhi. India suspended overflight facilities and airlinks with Pakistan from January 1, 2002 in the wake of the December 13, 2001 Parliament attack. The revival of airlinks was one of the two proposals first mooted by the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, in his statement to Parliament days after his Srinagar peace initiative on April 17/18. But Pakistan remained unmoved at the first round of talks held in the last week of August in Rawalpindi. The announcement by Gen. Musharraf today is the third in the series of confidence-building measures (CBMs) vis-à-vis India and should go a long way in creating the feel-good factor before the SAARC summit scheduled here from January 4 to 6. Earlier measures were the ban on proscribed militant and sectarian outfits and the unilateral ceasefire along the Line of Control. The Pakistan President chose to make public the gesture on overflights at an interactive session he had with a group of young Indian businesspersons. He reiterated that CBMs should lead to a concrete dialogue and the recent thaw between the two countries should lead to the resolution of all disputes including Kashmir. He told the businesspersons that the recent CBMs by Pakistan and India should be a starting point and not an end point of the process that must be taken to its culmination in the interest of peace and development of South Asia. He said Pakistan would formally convey its agreement on resuming overfights in Monday's talks on the subject between the Pakistani and Indian officials in New Delhi. Gen. Musharraf told them that the visiting delegation would be the first to fly out of Pakistan to India. The delegation, which arrived via the Wagha border on Saturday, is scheduled to visit Karachi tomorrow. Gen. Musharraf said that at the first stage, the two countries should start a dialogue. At the second, they should accept the importance and centrality of resolution of the Kashmir issue. At the third, the two countries should eliminate whatever was unacceptable to Pakistan, India and the people of Kashmir. At the fourth and last stage, they should solve the dispute in a way which was acceptable to the three parties, he said. "This is Pakistan's approach and it is flexible. We have to move step by step."
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