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Pak Byte II: It is illegal occupation

Islamabad, December 13
In a damage-control exercise after angering hardliners with its statement that Kashmir was not an integral part of it, Pakistan today accused India of "illegally occupying" the state and asked New Delhi to show flexibility in resolving the dragging dispute.

"India's position on Kashmir issue is not legally tenable and Pakistan has a legal, moral and political edge on the long-standing dispute," Pakistan's Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam told a programme on PTV.

She accused India of "illegally occupying" Kashmir by sending its troops to the state in 1947.

"Pakistan holds that Kashmir is more than a territorial dispute and the issue should be resolved according to aspirations of Kashmiris," Aslam was quoted as saying by state-run APP news agency.

President Pervez Musharraf wanted India and Pakistan to show flexibility in resolving the Kashmir issue, she said.

"When the President talks of flexibility, he talks of flexibility from both sides," she said.

Now the international community is looking towards India to show flexibility, she said. Aslam's comment on Monday that Pakistan had never claimed Kashmir as its integral part had drawn the ire of hardline religious parties, which accused the government of making a U-turn on the issue.

But she said, "Pakistan has a strong moral, political and legal case, while India retreated from its position after accepting the UN Security Council's resolutions."

Every country except India accepts Kashmir as a disputed territory and Pakistan and the UN show it as a disputed territory in their maps, Aslam claimed. Ideas floated by Musharraf were meant to create a conducive environment for dialogue. They had generated a discussion and given hope of a solution to Kashmiris, she said.

Meanwhile, the Nation newspaper has sharply criticised Aslam's remarks that Pakistan has never claimed Kashmir as its integral part. In its editorial "Yes, we claim Kashmir", the daily said, "The entire dispute revolves round the issue of a claim that is based on historical decisions supportive of Pakistan.

“The subcontinent's partition took place on the principle that Muslim-majority areas contiguous to each other would constitute Pakistan and the rest India. The princely states were under the obligation to take that factor and the composition and wishes of their subjects into account, while deciding upon accession to either state," it said. — PTI