Tuesday, Feb 18, 2003
Tuesday, Feb 18, 2003 |
| International | ||
|
News:
Front Page |
National |
Southern States |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary | International
By B. Muralidhar Reddy
In his address to the joint session of Parliament, the President asserted that there was a ``method in the madness'' of Pakistan-supported terrorist violence and accused Islamabad of flouting diplomatic norms by using its mission here to arrange financing of terrorist groups. The Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman, Aziz Ahmed Khan, described them as `oft repeated' and said ``we are used to these baseless allegations.'' Mr. Khan argued that India routinely made these allegations, but whenever challenged by Pakistan, ``they shied away, they run away''. Referring to Pakistan's proposal to deploy U.N. observers on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC) to verify allegations, the spokesman claimed that India did not agree to it, because then the ``basis for making baseless allegations will go away''. Pakistan was in favour of a peaceful resolution of all the disputes, as had also been demanded by the international community. ``We are not shying away from it.'' Mr. Khan said there was no proposal from Pakistan's side to snap all links with India. He was surprised at reports in a section of the press to this effect. A Pakistan English daily carried a report, attributed to unidentified wire agencies and quoting the External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha, that India intended to cut all its relations with Pakistan. Strangely, the report went on to quote Mr. Sinha as saying that a resolution would be moved in Parliament for terminating diplomatic relations with Pakistan. In response to another question on the recent statement made by Mr. Sinha that Pakistan should be guided by the `Chinese model' in its relations with India, the spokesman said that dialogue and diplomatic processes were the only civilised way to conduct inter-state business. ``We certainly want that process to go on''. On Iraq, he recalled the recent statement by the President, Pervez Musharraf, during a telephonic talk with the U.S. President, George Bush, that ``war was not a good option''. He said, it had been Pakistan's consistent position that the ``matter should be resolved peacefully''. The spokesman said that as long as the U.N. inspections were going on in Iraq, ``we hope that peace will be given a chance''. Incidentally, the Pakistan Prime Minister, Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, has begun consultations with party leaders on the Iraq crisis. With `anti-American' sentiments running high, the Musharraf-Jamali Government did not want take any chances on the sensitive subject. Islamabad is fully conscious of the difficulties ahead if the Bush-Blair brigade goes ahead with its plans to attack Iraq. The strong position taken by Germany, France and Belgium has, in fact, come as a blessing in disguise for Pakistan. The crunch for Gen. Musharraf and Mr. Jamali will come if the U.S. and the U.K. were to move a second resolution in the United Nations seeking use of force. As a non-permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, Pakistan will be called upon to take a side.
Printer friendly
page
News:
Front Page |
National |
Southern States |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
|
|
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | Business Line | The Sportstar | Frontline | Home |
Copyright © 2003, The
Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu
|
