The Hindu : Front Page : Kashmir the real issue: Shaukat Aziz

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 08, 2004

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Kashmir the real issue: Shaukat Aziz

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, SEPT. 7. The Pakistan Prime Minister, Shaukat Aziz, has asserted that the real issue between Pakistan and India was Jammu and Kashmir, and both should get into the next phase of "some timelines" in the dialogue.

In an interview to the Pakistan English daily Dawn, the new Prime Minister reiterated that Pakistan favoured a durable solution that reflected the aspirations and wishes of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

The comments of Mr. Aziz more or less reflect the sentiments expressed by the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, during his meeting with the External Affairs Minister, K. Natwar Singh, in July on the need for a "reasonable timeframe" for the resolution of Kashmir problem.

Asked whether he was satisfied with the current pace of peace talks with India, Mr. Aziz said in a veiled reference to Kashmir: "Well, I think we need to get now into the next phase where we get into some timelines."

Expressing satisfaction with the symbolic gestures from both sides, particularly the increase in people-to-people contact, he said: "We also feel we need to have substantive talks on Jammu and Kashmir so that this core issue heads towards resolution. I think other peripheral issues will take their own course."

Offer to Opposition

Mr. Aziz promised to offer an olive branch to Opposition parties which had boycotted his recent election to office, and vowed to make a "very serious effort" to seek a consensus on national issues. But he was non-committal whether he would reach out to the former Prime Ministers, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif. He said he wanted to carry the Opposition along or "at least have discussions with the Opposition" on all major issues. "I think what we need is to change from point-scoring and ... disagreement for the sake of disagreement."

National consensus

The Prime Minister regretted that while many countries had a national consensus on some of their policies, "in our case we hardly have any policies where we have any consensus. I am not saying we will be able to achieve that, but certainly we will make a very sincere effort."

He defended the large size of his Cabinet, totalling more than 60, saying it was it was totally in line with what we require".

"You could have had a Cabinet half this size but then you would create bottlenecks." He said a country like Malaysia with a population of only 25 million people had 32 full Ministers and as many Ministers of State while Pakistan has a population of 150 million.

On foreign policy priorities, Mr. Aziz said Pakistan always sought peace with all its neighbours, including India, while maintaining its integrity and sovereignty and a sense of equality. To a question on nuclear programme, Mr. Aziz said, "Pakistan's nuclear programme is a guarantee for peace and we need to maintain it and develop it so as to ensure peace in the region." He maintained that Pakistan's nuclear programme was "strictly peaceful".

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