Islamabad, January 14
When External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee ruled out the redrawing of geographical boundaries with regards to the Kashmir problem in his interaction with leaders of Pakistan’s different political parties this morning, his statement was essentially a reflection on what transpired yesterday in his talks with President Pervez Musharraf and his counterpart Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri.
Although no big-ticket announcements were expected from this visit and they did not materialise, India was able to convince the hosts about the merits of having a sustained dialogue on other issues while adopting an incremental approach to more complex matters like Kashmir.
This was evident from the decisions that the two sides arrived at yesterday, which skirted the core issues bedeviling relations between the two countries. At the same time, there was an acceptance about the need to keep their dialogue going as New Delhi and Islamabad set up a time-frame for their talks, which could pave the way for a formal
agreements in the coming months. Clearly, the effort was on creating the right atmospherics. While India had sufficient reasons to be pleased with the outcome of these discussions, it was also true that Pakistan would have liked New Delhi to go beyond what was agreed upon yesterday. Given that Mr Pranab Mukherjee was a senior leader enjoying immense political clout in the present dispensation in New Delhi, Islamabad had been banking on a far greater advance on core issues like Kashmir.
The impatience on the Pakistani side was also related to the fact that President Musharraf would face an election next year. He would naturally like to make some headway on the Kashmir issue which could be touted as a major achievement, particularly since the President was perceived to have gone out of his way to offer a fresh set of proposals on Kashmir to India.
In fact, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, secretary-general of the Muthaida Majlis-e-Amal, a right wing religious party, sought India’s response to President’s formulation in his breakfast meeting with Mr Pranab Mukherjee. The visiting minister ruled out any quick-fix solutions to a problem which, he said, had been festering for sixty years.
Instead, he underlined the need for a step-by-step approach but quickly added that there could be no redrawing of geographical boundaries with regards to Kashmir. At the same time, he underlined the need of working together, saying that if the two countries could cooperate in disaster management as they did after the last earthquake, so much more could be achieved by working together during peace time. In this context, Mr Mukherjee referred to the European Union model and suggested that India and Pakistan emulate their example.
Mr Shujat Hussai, former Prime Minister and president of the ruling PML (Quaid), who brought an archaeologist with him for this meeting, referred to the ongoing restoration work being done on the Katasraj temple near Lahore and said that a delegation from their archaeology department would soon be traveling to India to see the restoration work being done on various ancient sites, including Puskhar.
Other political leaders who attended this meeting included Makhdum Amin Fahim of the Pakistan People’s Party, Afsandayar Wali of the Awami National Party and Muhammad Farooq Sattar from the Muthaida-Quami Movement. All those who participated have led delegations to India and are acquainted with issues pertaining to relations between the two countries.
