Foreign Office on Tuesday told a parliamentary panel that Pakistan was ready to hold talks with India on all outstanding issues with Kashmir as compulsory agenda item but India only wants to discuss the issue of terrorism. Director General South Asia Division at Foreign Office, Dr Mohammad Faisal, while briefing National Assembly's Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs on the current status of Pakistan-India relations, said that prime ministers of the two countries had agreed in Ufa on July 10, 2015 to discuss all outstanding issues including Kashmir.
But when a meeting between national security advisers (NSAs) was scheduled in New Delhi, he said that the Indian side forwarded two pre-conditions for the talks - terrorism as the only subject and no consultations with Kashmiri leaders. "Pakistan is ready to talk with India without any pre-condition...constructive, sustained, unconditional and result-oriented dialogue on all outstanding issues. But no talks can be held with India unless the core issue of Kashmir is included in the agenda," he added.
Kashmir is the core issue, he said, adding Pakistan wants that United Nations Security Council resolutions on Kashmir dispute should be implemented and any decision on Kashmir has to take into account the aspirations of the Kashmiri people. He said that Pakistan is concerned on the persecution of minorities in India especially on the human rights violations in the Indian occupied Kashmir.
He further told the committee that Pakistan has shared the dossiers containing proofs of Indian involvement in terror activities in Karachi, Balochistan and FATA. Referring to the repeated cease-fire violations on Line of Control (LoC) and Working Boundary (WB), he said that Pakistan also remains concerned over the continuous violation and killing of innocent people on the border. He said that a flag meeting between the official concerned of the two countries was to be held on Tuesday at Shakar Garkh sector to discuss the LoC and WB situations.
Dr Faisal further said that Pakistan's permanent representative to United Nations has also written a letter to President UNSC on the continued cease-fire violations by Indian troops while prime minister's adviser on national security and foreign affairs and the Foreign Secretary have also written to their Indian counterparts. He said that Indian troops are deliberately targeting the civilian population and till October 15, there has been 400 violations recorded on the borders with India that resulted in killing of 36 civilians and injuring 122 others people. He said that the current month has been relatively calm but there was again escalation in last week which led to killing of four civilians in Pakistan.
Foreign Policy experts including former ambassador Ashraf Jahangir Qazi, Nasim Zehra and Ejaz Haider shared their views with the committee members on Pakistan-India relations. Ambassador Qazi was of the opinion that India's adversary towards Pakistan is not a result of Modi although he has exacerbated it and brought it to a new crisis level. Even if Modi is replaced or he moderates his tone and content of his policies towards Pakistan, he said that no basic change in the bilateral relationship is likely to occur for the foreseeable future.
He said that there may be temporary ups and downs but the overall relationship will remain sub-optimal, tense and unstable. According to him, the danger of another war with India is small, although constant confrontation and conflict along the LoC, and international border increases the risks of significant escalation of conflict over the time. In his recommendations, Qazi said that India represents the biggest challenge for Pakistan's external policy. At the same time, he also stressed that Pak-India relationship is Pakistan's most important bilateral relationship.
As a matter of priority, he said that Pakistan will seek to initiate a process of normalising relations with India without compromising its principled position with respect to Jammu and Kashmir, especially the human and political rights of the Kashmiri people.
Responding to queries by the committee members, Qazi said that third option on resolution of Kashmir by declaring it an independent state was the most popular narrative in the valley but both India and Pakistan are against the option. The proceeding led to an interesting discussion when committee member Mehmood Khan Achakzi posed a question to the panel whether Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's recent trip to the US was a bilateral visit or it was a "summon". "As per my assessment, it was a summon...I'm afraid to say that we've a very limited time to save the country," he remarked.
In an obvious reference to Army Chief General Raheel Sharif's next month visit to the US, Achakzai said: "This summon will be followed by another summon next month". Dr Shireen Mazari pointed out that if it was not a summon, the prime minister should have spoken to President Obama about Pakistan's inclusion into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). However, Foreign Office officials pointed out that in the joint statement issued after Obama-Sharif meeting, all areas of mutual co-operation and interests have been covered in detail.
The committee was chaired by Rana Mohammad Afzal Khan due to suspension of membership of Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari by Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for his inability to submit his asset details. While explaining his position, Leghari said that he had submitted the details well on time but the ECP failed to remove his name from the list of the parliamentarians whose membership has been suspended.
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