AJK PM advises Pakistan to give up ‘Kashmir first’ policy

[sparklingway]

AJK PM advises Pakistan to give up ‘Kashmir first’ policy​

Tuesday, July 06, 2010
By Rauf Klasra

ISLAMABAD: In a major policy shift, the AJK Prime Minister, Raja Farooq Haider, has advised Pakistan not to link the ongoing negotiations with India with the resolution of the Kashmir dispute and instead first resolve the small irritants and controversial issues before finally sorting out the core issue of Kashmir.

He also backed the proposal to give the status of ‘Most Favourite Nation’ (MFN) to India and allow New Delhi to use Pakistani soil as a transit route for trade purposes. India had already given MFN status to Pakistan but Islamabad never reciprocated this gesture on the ground that unless Kashmir was resolved, it would not confer this status on New Delhi.

Raja Farooq told The News that Pakistan and India should maintain the status quo on Kashmir for some time, as he believed that they should resolve other issues before taking up Kashmir. He said it would be wiser for Pakistan to wait for the right time to restart negotiations on Kashmir.

The AJK prime minister also strongly backed the inclusion of India in the Pak-Iran gas project and transit facility for India to trade with Afghanistan. Raja Farooq repeatedly explained that he was giving this advice because he believed that this was not the right time for Pakistan to press for a Kashmir settlement. At the moment, he said, Pakistan was facing a formidable security challenge from the militants and was not in a position to effectively fight the case of Kashmir at this important juncture of history.

To a question, Raja said it did not mean a reversal of Pakistan’s traditional stand on Kashmir, as many emotional people might instantly try to infer. “What I am trying to suggest is that this is not the right time to negotiate Kashmir with the Indians, as Islamabad’s position is obviously quite weak because of its internal vulnerabilities,” he said without elaborating.

To a question about the formula on Kashmir agreed between Pakistan and India during Pervez Musharraf’s rule, as recently revealed by former foreign minister Khursheed Kasuri, he said no Kashmiri would have accepted it.

Raja Farooq lamented that the Pakistani media was not giving importance to the current uprising in the Indian-held Kashmir where even a nine-year old boy was gunned down by the Indian security forces. He said the whole of Kashmir was once again protesting against the hostilities of the Indian Army. He challenged the claim of the Indian Army that only 500 freedom fighters were left to fight against them, and said had this been true, there would have been no need for such a heavy deployment of the Indian Army in the valley. He said the Kashmiris were not ready to live with the Indians at any cost because almost every family had lost somebody in the freedom struggle.