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By B. Muralidhar Reddy
The Press Secretary to the Pakistan President and Director-General of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Rashid Quereshi, reiterated on Thursday that India's recent actions were `cosmetic' in nature and Islamabad expected more substantial steps for de-escalation of tension. Implied in Maj. Gen. Quereshi's observations to a group of reporters in Rawalpindi was the suggestion that Islamabad viewed New Delhi's decision to re-open its air corridor as a move with commercial motives. Ever since India snapped rail, road and air links with Pakistan and banned the use of its airspace, Islamabad's contention has been that the steps, particularly closing the air corridor, hurt Indian economic interests more than that of Pakistan. ``We don't see that minor cosmetic measures could help in reducing tension in the wake of the stand-off at the common borders with India. We strongly believe that dialogue is the only rational way towards de-escalation,'' Maj. Gen. Qureshi said. He characterised Kashmir as the `core issue' and maintained that the resumption of a comprehensive dialogue was the best way to defuse the tension. ``We don't care even if India chose to keep its forces for five years at the International Borders, Line of Control, Working Boundary or the Line of Contact, as our armed forces are fully capable of thwarting any eventuality or aggression while defending every inch of the motherland,'' he claimed. On allowing Pakistan to use the airspace, he said, ``these measures are being announced due to heavy losses being faced by the Indian airlines as they have diverted their 213 flights after the closure of Pakistani airspace in retaliation to the New Delhi's decision.'' Pakistan had only diverted 11 to 12 flights. ``It is the Indian leadership that had closed air, rail and road links between the two countries and it is the Indian business community which is suffering from tremendous economic loss. The losses of the Pakistan business community are minor.'' He said, ``whatever the Indians have done so far is totally cosmetic and to ease their own problems and we don't want to respond to such measures. We are looking for initiation of talks for resolution of all the disputes, especially the issue of Jammu and Kashmir. Once and for all the Kashmir issue should be settled amicably. Once we sit to talk on the core issue, the de-escalation automatically would be there.'' On the withdrawal of Indian naval vessels from the Arabian Sea, Maj. Gen. Qureshi said, ``there was no Indian presence close to Pakistani waters. The Indian ships on a daylong sailing distance had gone only for refuelling.'' ``The Indians know very well about the abilities of the Pakistan Navy, that is why they did not venture anywhere close to Pakistani waters. Since the Indian naval vessels did not affect Pakistan, their withdrawal did not matter to us,'' he said.
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