Musharraf sees division in India on Kashmir

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, NOV. 26. The Pakistan President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, today said that there was a division in the Indian establishment on the Kashmir dispute and this was evident from the repeated statements of the External Affairs Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh, about Kashmir at the `core of the nationhood' of India.

In a candid hour-long interview over Pakistan Television (PTV), Gen. Musharraf asserted that Kashmir ``is the core issue in relations between India and Pakistan.'' Pakistan was prepared to discuss all issues with the Indian leadership as long as the talks focused on resolution of the Kashmir issue.

``The statement you are referring to (Mr. Jaswant Singh's) is a reflection of the split in the Indian Government. At Agra the draft agreement we almost signed had to be deferred because of pressure from the hardcore elements. The statement is reflective of the extremist views of an individual,'' he said responding to a question by one of the two hosts on the ``News Night'' programme on PTV.

Gen. Musharraf said the Belgium President and the chief of the European Union informed him during his visit to Islamabad that New Delhi had launched a campaign that he was ``unifocal'' in his approach towards relations with India.

The General restated his four-stage plan for resolution of the Kashmir problem. He said the first stage involved dialogue at the highest level between the two countries. He had lauded the initiative of the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, to invite him to India in July this year and maintained that the step needed to be taken again. The second stage required an agreement on centrality of Kashmir as the main issue between India and Pakistan. In the third step both sides would have to eliminate all the formulas not acceptable to each other. ``The four and last step is a discussion on the actual solution. I would not like to get down to solution at this juncture''.

The Pakistan President took the opportunity to assert again the need to accommodate the ``moderate'' elements in the Taliban in the new set-up in Afghanistan. Pakistan has no problem with any one of the components of the Northern Alliance and is confident that any government in Kabul would have a good relationship with Islamabad, he said.

``Afghanistan is a land-locked country. It is dependent on Pakistan for trade and other needs'', he said and conceded that besides the objective of elimination of terrorism, the United States could have economic goals in Afghanistan.

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