Even though Kashmir has always been a bone of contention between two arch rivals India and Pakistan, Pakistan says it is always ready to tie the knot of friendship with India either bilaterally or by the involvement of third party meditation.
Showing concern over the Kashmir issue, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif while describing Kashmir as “a flashpoint” between India and Pakistan, said there is a need for a third party mediation to resolve the issue and end stalemate in the Indo-Pak dialogue process.
“(Currently) there are no bilateral talks (between India and Pakistan) on resolving the Kashmir issue. In that scenario there should be a third party meditation on this. If India does not accept a third party role, if there is no bilateral talks then there is a stalemate,” Sharif told reporters after his meeting.
India and Pakistan earlier tried to solve the Kashmir issue in Agra summit held in 2001.However, Advani’s demand of handing over Dawood Ibhrahim spoiled the peace talks between the two countries.
Speaking in Urdu, Sharif said he raised the Kashmir issue in all his meetings with the US leadership including Obama. “It (Kashmir) also figured in the joint statement,” Sharif said adding all of them recognised that Kashmir is a “flashpoint” and it needs to be resolved.
Sharif told media that he briefed Obama on his Kashmir peace initiative and during that meeting, Obama agreed that Kashmir issue needs to be resolved.
“Unfortunately, Pakistan has not received adequate response from India on its peace initiative,” he said.
Talking over the Kashmir issue, Pakistan Prime Minister said India has rejected any third party intervention to the Kashmir issue and has maintained that all outstanding matters in the Indo-Pak ties should be resolved bilaterally.
In response to a question on the Indo-Pak relationship, he recalled his visit to New Delhi to attend the swearing in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. During the meeting, he said, he offered Modi to revive the peace process from where he and former premier Atal Bihari Vajpayee left in Lahore in 1999.
“He agreed for talks and then suddenly unilaterally cancelled the Foreign Secretary-level talks.Had he (Modi) talked to me, Things could have been different. But he took such a decision without consulting me,” Sharif rued.
Sharif said a set of three dossiers on alleged Indian activities in parts of Pakistan were handed over to the Secretary of State John Kerry yesterday. He said that firing on the Line of Control (LoC) was discussed during his talks with US leaders, alleging that ceasefire has been “brutally violated” not only on the LoC, but also on the actual boundary. The Prime Minister argued for setting up a mechanism to determine who first violated the ceasefire. Those who violates the ceasefire should be held responsible, he said.
Weeks ago, former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Farooq Abdullah also said that Kashmir issue would only be solved by dialogues between India and Pakistan.
“The unrest in Kashmir and Pakistan would never be fruitful so the better option is to have peace talks with the neighboring country,” he said.