Sharif to raise Kashmir issue

ISLAMABAD, Sept 19 (PTI) — Pakistani Premier Nawaz Sharif today said he would raise the Kashmir issue during his address to the UN General Assembly and also press for a "substantive dialogue" on the issue at a meeting with his Indian counterpart, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee on Wednesday in New York.

Before leaving for New York this morning, Mr Sharif said he would forcefully present Pakistan’s case in his address to the world body on September 23, "drawing the attention of the world community to pressing problems like Kashmir".

Commenting on his scheduled meeting with Mr Vajpayee, he said he would ask for a "substantive dialogue on the core issue of Kashmir, which is the main cause of conflict between the two countries".Apart from holding bilateral talks with Mr Vajpayee, Mr Sharif will also meet several other world leaders including President Bill Clinton, British Premier Tony Blair, Iranian President Mohammed Khatami, and South African President Nelson Mandela."

I would raise all those issues which will help establish peace and security in the region," Mr Sharif said.

Mr Sharif said Pakistan had not changed its policy even after becoming a nuclear power and it would continue its efforts to resolve all issues peacefully and through a dialogue. "Pakistan has always been trying to have better relations with India by removing all differences", he said.

He also said that Pakistan would call upon India to resume the dialogue process to settle all disputes, including Kashmir, on the basis of the agenda agreed to by the two countries in Islamabad last year.

The foreign secretaries of the two countries had identified eight outstanding issues during their talks here in June last year, but the bilateral talks could not progress much and broke down in September, 1997 over differences on the contentious issue of Kashmir and were yet to resume.

Earlier, Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz in an interview to PTV had also said that Mr Sharif would raise the Kashmir issue during his meetings with the world leaders and at his meeting with Mr Vajpayee. He would also raise the same apart from the bilateral issues.

Mr Aziz dubbed Mr Sharif’s trip to New York as "very important" as he would meet several world leaders in the wake of recent developments in South Asia and the focus would be on the security situation in the region following the nuclearisation of the region.

Mr Sharif and Mr Vajpayee would meet for the second time within a period of less than two months in an attempt to break the impasse in the Indo-Pak bilateral dialogue process and resume the process which was stalled for exactly a year now. Pakistan, however, was quite elated at the recent world reaction to the Kashmir issue following the nuclear explosions by India and Pakistan and was trying to build pressure on the Indian leadership for taking up the settlement of the Kashmir issue on a priority basis.

Pakistan has repeatedly claimed that Kashmir is a major flashpoint in the region and needs urgent attention while referring to the statements of several world leaders. The latest being the one by South African President Nelson Mandela during the NAM summit in Durban last month. India on the other hand had agreed to discuss the issue with Pakistan but is insisting that the issue should be taken up with other outstanding issues between the two countries.