The Hindu : `No tacit understanding'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 13, 2003

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`No tacit understanding'

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD MAY 12. Pakistan today dismissed as "rubbish" reports in a section of the Pakistani press that it has agreed to put the Kashmir issue on the back burner and follow the "Chinese model" in its relations with India.

The Foreign Office spokesman, Aziz Ahmed Khan, was unusually harsh on the media report suggesting a fundamental change in Pakistan's Kashmir policy and described the report as "unfortunate and irresponsible". The front-page report in the English daily, The Nation, claimed that thanks to the behind-the-scene role played by the United States, India and Pakistan were "inching towards a tacit understanding to freeze the core Kashmir dispute" for the next few years.

It said that Islamabad had already given two major "concessions" to New Delhi by not insisting on the U.N. Security Council resolutions on Kashmir and an assurance to "choke" cross-border infiltration and rollback the "so-called militant camps".

Mr. Khan asserted that there was no change in the Government's Kashmir policy and reiterated that the long-running dispute should be resolved in line with the U.N. resolutions and in accordance with the wishes of the Kashmiri people. "There has never been any change, dilution or doubt in Pakistan's standpoint on the Kashmir issue," he said.

Asked whether there was any progress on the Indo-Pak. peace initiative, Mr. Khan said that apart from the routine diplomatic channel, there had not been any official contact over the resumption of dialogue. He, however, expressed Pakistan's readiness to resume negotiations with India stating that it was Islamabad's policy to have a "composite dialogue" with New Delhi on all outstanding issues including the "core Kashmir dispute".

About the appointment of Pakistan's new High Commissioner to New Delhi, he said a decision was yet to be made.

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