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Pak to restore full diplomatic ties

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri speaks to reporters at the Foreign Ministry in Islamabad on Friday. — Reuters photo

Islamabad, May 2
In a reciprocal gesture, Pakistan today agreed to restore full diplomatic ties with India, the Foreign Ministry said.

Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri welcomed India’s decision to appoint a High Commissioner to Islamabad and said Pakistan would do the same.

“We welcome Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s announcements in Parliament today, including the one relating to the appointment of a High Commissioner,” he said in a statement. “Pakistan wants High Commissioner level relations with India,” he added.

Mr Kasuri also welcomed India’s offer of dialogue, saying that Pakistan had been pressing for a resumption of talks. “We are ready to hold talks,” he said. AP

Musharraf for ‘meaningful’ talks

Islamabad, May 2
Dispelling the notion that the fresh peace overtures by India and Pakistan were the result of “some outside pressure”, President Pervez Musharraf has said the Kashmir issue could be resolved only through “meaningful dialogue”.

He denied that there was any road map to resolve the issue, as reported in a section of the media here.

The USA also denied that it had set any deadline to resolve the issue and described the report quoting the US Administrator in Iraq, Gen J. Garner, in this regard as “total fabrication and absolutely not true.”

“We were consistently saying that we want talks, but it was India that was showing rigidity,” the President said in an interview to a London-based Urdu TV channel, ARV Gold.

“Now it appears that some change has come from their side,” he said in the interview, also carried by state-run APP news agency.

Replying to questions on the peace initiative by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and his Pakistani counterpart Zafarullah Khan Jamali, he said he believed there was a growing realisation among the Indian leadership that the Kashmir issue could be resolved only through meaningful dialogue.

About the Vajpayee-Jamali telephonic conversation, General Musharraf said, “This is a very good sign. I think it is a new beginning after the Agra Summit.”

Brushing aside the impression that the present initiative was the result of outside pressure, General Musharraf said no one could build pressure from the outside but there may be some suggestions.

Denying that there was any road map for the resolution of the Kashmir issue, General Musharraf said things could improve with an approach based on phases.

“It’s not a time-based road map. It’s a road map based on negotiations,” he said.

The President said he had on many occasions given a road map on how the process of dialogue should proceed. “We can hope and pray that the resolution of the issue takes place,” he said. PTI