Home > News > Indo-Pak Peace Talk > PTI

If India takes one step, Islamabad will take two: Musharraf

K J M Varma in Islamabad | June 18, 2003 12:10 IST

Welcoming Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani's statement that compromises have to be made by both India and Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir issue, President Pervez Musharraf has said if New Delhi takes one step, Islamabad is willing to take two to normalise relations.

In an interview to BBC Asia Today programme telecast on Wednesday, Musharraf, who is currently in London, said he was willing to meet India more than half way. 

Hinting that there was a possibility that India and Pakistan could hold talks at a high-level during this year, Musharraf said, "I think there will be talks. Pakistani leadership certainly wants it. But it depends on other side, whether they want to extend the other hand also."

He said Pakistan was doing everything possible to prevent armed militants from crossing into Kashmir, but that he could not guarantee a total end to infiltration.

However, confronted with comments by the US Ambassador to India Robert Blackwill and by US Secretary of State Colin Powell that infiltration continued in Kashmir, Musharraf said, "There is nobody in the world who can guarantee that not a single individual crossing across the border. What one can do is (to see that) that there is no government patronage. What one can additionally do is to put the army on alert and also to send messages all around to sympathisers not to undertake any kind of movement across the LoC and we will take strict action."

He said efforts to stop cross-border terrorism in Kashmir could not be sustained indefinitely. "You cannot keep a military on high alert for a long period and you would not like people to turn their guns against you and undermine your own government because you are selling out, because there is no reciprocation coming from the other side."

"As I said there is nothing happening (at the LoC). There is no official patronage. There is no government patronage on anything. I have been saying, let there be reciprocation.

Unless there is reciprocation, all that we try to do in Pakistan will come to a nought," he said.

"Because there are definitely elements, sympathetic towards whatever the freedom struggle in Kashmir and these very elements will start blaming the government for a sell out. Therefore, while the government takes action in Pakistan, there has to be reciprocation from the Indian side," he said.

He claimed that Pakistan had done its bit to try to build confidence after Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee extended a 'hand of friendship'.

Replying to a question about why talks have been delayed despite Vajpayee's 'bold' offer of resumption of dialogue, Musharraf claimed that Pakistan has offered seven confidence building measures instead of India's two.

"We offered more far reaching than he did. We have not got a reply as yet. Therefore the ball is entirely in their court. We said let us start talking. We have appointed our high commissioner. He is going at the end of this month. Their high commissioner has not come as yet by the way," Musharraf claimed.

Asked about the prevailing mistrust in India due to his alleged involvement in Kargil and disruption of Lahore process and the steps to be taken by him to establish his credentials as a man of peace, Musharraf said, "Unfortunately these are aspersions cast by India."

"Yes there is lot of mistrust in India. All this is manipulated after the Agra failure. We went to Agra. We drafted a declaration. Prime Minister, Vajpayee, myself and the two foreign ministers, we drafted a declaration. We were about to sign it. Why did we not sign it? Is anyone asking why we did not sign it?" he asked.


Article Tools

Email this Article

Printer-Friendly Format

Letter to the Editor






© Copyright 2003 PTI. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of PTI content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent.
Indo-Pak Peace Talk: The Complete Coverage

Share your comments


 What do you think about the story?




Read what others have to say:


Number of User Comments: 44




Sub: Musharaff can not fill greedy Indians belly

I think whatever Musharaff do like isolating those poor mujahideens who only wants to give away their lives for Pakistan ,facing worst terrorism in our ...


Posted by Syed Ummair Hamdani





Sub: Indian In-competence

This gentleman says, " the Kashmir issue is an Indegenious freedom struggle"" Then, why is half of Kashmir is with Pakistan??? Hum. Too bad that ...


Posted by Manu Nair





Sub: Two steps... backward

Yeah, right. I am sure he means what he says. For every step forward India takes, Pakistan will take two steps ... BACKWARD!


Posted by Nikhil





Sub: comment

Musharaff statements shows that he is out of control of infiltrators and terrarism-back freedom fighters. i think both india and pakistan should stop the cenematic ...


Posted by suresh babu





Sub: enough senseless talks !!

words, words, words... i am tired of hearing these words full of promise from musharraf. What is required is now action. If he says that ...


Posted by anupam




Disclaimer







Copyright © 2003 rediff.com India Limited. All Rights Reserved.