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Ready to put Kashmir issue on the back burner: Zardari

“Let’s focus on other aspects for improving ties with India”

Asif Ali Zardari

Islamabad: In a major shift from Pakistan’s long-standing position, Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Asif Ali Zardari, whose party is set to assume office in the country, has expressed readiness to set aside the Kashmir issue and focus on other aspects for improving relations with India.

He said that the relations should not be held “hostage” to the Kashmir issue and that the two countries “can wait” so that future generations resolve the dispute in a mature manner in an atmosphere of “trust.”

Break barriers

In views reflecting India’s position, Mr. Zardari said he was determined to break the barriers and mindsets that deter trade between the two countries.

“The idea is that we feel for Kashmir, the PPP (Pakistan People’s Party) has always felt for Kashmir. We have a strong Kashmir policy. We have always had one,” he said.

“But having said that, we don’t want to be hostage to that situation. That is a situation we can agree to disagree [on]. Countries do, we have positions, you have positions. We can agree to disagree on everything,” he told Karan Thapar’s ‘Devil’s Advocate’ programme for CNN-IBN.

Noting that India and Pakistan could “agree to disagree on [the U.N. resolutions],” he said: “We can wait. We can be patient till everybody grows up further. Maybe the coming generation grows up even further and then let’s interact as human beings and come to a position of love.”

Asked if the PPP would be willing to put aside the Kashmir issue just as India and China had set aside their border dispute to focus on other aspects of their ties, Mr. Zardari said: “Exactly.”

“Today, there are fixed notions. When dependency increases (and) we have matured enough (and) we’ve got trust between us, then nobody has fixed issues,” the PPP leader said.

Agreeing that the Kashmir issue should be set aside for a wiser generation and a better time, he said: “As it is, it’s going to be a no-border world in the end.”

Asked about the Charter of Democracy signed by the PPP and the PML-N in 2006 that committed both parties to resolving the Kashmir issue in line with U.N. resolutions, Mr. Zardari said, “I am not getting hostage to that issue.”

Negate fear factor

Disagreeing that the Kashmir issue could best be sorted out while the Army was in power in Pakistan, he said people-to-people contacts and inter-dependence in trade could help negate the “fear factor” in both countries.

“Well, we’ve had Army rule for eight years. Have they solved it? I don’t need to convince them, it [situation] talks for itself,” he said.

While conceding that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pervez Musharraf “may have probably had the best understanding ever,” he said: “I want to take (the relations) to a stage of such confidence-building that the fear factor diminishes from both angles. — PTI

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