M A I N   N E W S

Musharraf steps up rhetoric on Kashmir

Islamabad, June 30
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has stepped up rhetoric on Kashmir after a long gap by telling India that he might revert to the demand of third party intervention if his proposals of demilitarisation and self-governance in the region were not considered “positively” to resolve the issue.

General Musharraf also said his tenure offered the best available opportunity to resolve the Kashmir issue. “If not now, then the Kashmir issue will never be settled. The international community also wants the issue to be sorted out,” he told the concluding session of the four-day conference here yesterday of the country's envoys abroad.

The composite dialogue process with India which completed its third round failed to make any headway in resolving the Kashmir issue, General Musharraf asked the Indian leadership to respond positively to options of demilitarisation, self-governance and joint management floated by him.

The dialogue process and CBMs should move in tandem to resolve the contentious issue. “If anyone of the two fails, the whole dialogue process will fall apart. If we cannot resolve this issue mutually, then Pakistan has some other options too,” he was quoted as saying by Online news agency. — PTI, UNI