The Hindu : International / India & World : Bus service accord hailed as `mother of CBMs'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 18, 2005

International

International - India & World

Bus service accord hailed as `mother of CBMs'

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, FEB. 17. The accord between India and Pakistan to run a Muzaffarabad-Srinagar bus service has been hailed as "mother of all confidence building measures (CBMs)" by political parties, civil society and the media in Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK). The Hizb-ul Mujahideen, the militant outfit, struck a discordant note, saying it was "unimportant."

Welcoming the decision, the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, appreciated the "flexibility and statesmanship" shown by the two sides and hoped that the two countries could resolve all the issues, including that of Jammu and Kashmir, in the same spirit.

An official statement said he made the remarks when the External Affairs Minister, K. Natwar Singh, met him for an hour on Wednesday. The statement said Gen. Musharraf emphasised that the SAARC process needed to be strengthened and every effort should be made to turn it into a useful forum for the regional development.

He stressed the need for a peaceful resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute "in accordance with the aspirations of the Kashmiri people," terming it as an essential prerequisite for achieving full normalisation of relations between the two countries.

Rights situation

He said there was a need to raise the "comfort" level of the Kashmiris by improving the human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir. He also raised the Baglihar issue and expressed serious concern on the "non-resolution of the Baglihar Hydro-Electric Power Project issue in consonance with the Indus Water Treaty provisions."

The statement said Gen. Musharraf regretted that after exhausting all avenues to resolve the issue bilaterally, Pakistan was constrained to approach the World Bank for appointment of a neutral expert as outlined in the provisions of the Indus Water Treaty. But he hoped that the two countries would be able to resolve their issue bilaterally in the spirit of cooperation and good neighbourliness.

It said that he stressed the point that to continue the composite dialogue process in a positive and constructive manner, there was a need for maintaining contacts at the highest political level. He hoped that the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, would be able to visit Pakistan at his earliest convenience.

`Safe, open borders'

The former Prime Minister and chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party, Benazir Bhutto, has said that the bus service would help alleviate the sufferings of divided Kashmiri families and also promote the prospects of safe and open borders in South Asia.

"The formula of safe and open borders in South Asia, without prejudice to the Kashmir dispute, can help build tension-free relations with India," she said and maintained that such relations could help set the stage for the South Asian Association of Countries moving towards a common market on the pattern of the European Union.

She said the start of the bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad would further boost the peace process in the region.

Ms. Bhutto said her party felt vindicated that its vision of India-Pakistan relations to benefit the over a billion people of the region was eventually being owned even by those who dubbed her and the PPP as security risk when it was first propounded.

She hoped that other issues including a nuclear restraint regime and mutual reduction in conventional forces would also be addressed.

The PoK Prime Minister, Sardar Hayat Khan, has welcomed it as a major breakthrough, which could pave the way for the resolution of the Kashmir issue. But Syed Salahuddin, chief of the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, said the bus service would not improve the plight of Kashmiris.

"The bus service is a failed effort to put ointment on the wounds of Kashmiris," he said in a statement in Muzaffarabad.

The Jaish-e-Muhammed, another Pakistan-based militant group, has said the bus service agreement "will weaken the idea of Kashmir uniting with Pakistan."

"We will see what benefits India wants to get from this bus service. If it infiltrates spies" into Pakistan-occupied Kashmir "we will certainly try to stop it," Muftia Abdur Rauf, a spokesman for the group, said.

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