The Hindu : LoC as border is no solution: Jamali

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 06, 2003

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LoC as border is no solution: Jamali

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD June 5. The Pakistan Prime Minister, Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, has said that the Kashmir "dispute" could not be resolved by converting the Line of Control into a "permanent" border.

Mr. Jamali made these observations on Wednesday while addressing a gathering at the National Defence College. "A peaceful settlement of the Kashmir issue could not be as simplistic as recognising the Line of Control as a permanent border.''

It is not for the first time that Pakistan has talked against conversion of the LoC into a permanent border since the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, made the peace offer on April 17 and 18. Earlier, the Pakistan Information Minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, had said that the "struggle" of the last 55 years would be futile if Islamabad were to agree to conversion of the LoC into a border.

Mr. Jamali said any solution to the Kashmir issue should be encompassing all the parties involved. The position of Pakistan was that besides India and Pakistan, Kashmiris were party to the "dispute". He said a peaceful and stable South Asia would enable both the countries to face the biggest challenge of combating poverty, hunger and diseases that confronted this region.

He expressed the hope that India would respond positively to Pakistan's peace overtures for initiating meaningful dialogues to resolve all outstanding issues, including the core issue of Kashmir.

A success of the dialogue process would depend on sincere reciprocity from India, Mr. Jamali said. He said his Government remained committed to a "modern, progressive and forward looking" Pakistan, as visualised by the Father of the Nation and it would continue to strive for the creation of a welfare State, to translate this vision into reality.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Government would be sending a delegation to India next week to work out the modalities for the resumption of the bus service between the two countries. The delegation will comprise senior officials of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, a representative of the Foreign Office and technical officials of the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC).

India, on Tuesday, said that it was prepared to resume the suspended Delhi-Lahore-Delhi bus service on July 1.

Following the announcement, the Delhi Transport Corporation sent a fax message to the PTDC, inviting a technical committee.

The PTDC's three-member technical committee would comprise its manager (accounts), deputy managing-director and Pakistan Tours Limited manager. The committee will discuss its Indian counterparts the fare rates, number of buses to be plied between the two countries and the timings of the bus operations.

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