Date:16/09/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/16/stories/2008091660411500.htm

International - India & World

Kayani harps on “national consensus” on Kashmir

Nirupama Subramanian

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has once again spoken of a “national consensus” on the Kashmir issue as already in existing, without elaborating what it is.

A military statement said Gen. Kayani, who visited troops at Siachen on Monday, asked them to maintain “the highest state of preparedness and never lower their guard.”

The Army chief “highlighted the national consensus that exists on the Kashmir issue,” the release said. There were no further details.

Gen. Kayani’s statement comes days after an announcement by President Asif Ali Zardari that there would soon be “good news” on Kashmir, and that all political parties would be taken on board in the resolution of the issue.

This is the second time that Gen. Kayani has spoken about an existing “consensus” in Pakistan on the Kashmir issue.

He spoke about it once before in March this year, during a visit to forward locations near the Line of Control in Kashmir.

That statement too followed comments by Mr. Zardari — at that time he was only Pakistan People’s Party leader — on an Indian television channel that India and Pakistan could “agree to disagree” on Kashmir, and that the issue should not be allowed to hijack the improvement of trade and other relations between the two countries.