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Pakistan PM in New York, Calls for Dispute Resolution With India

Posted on: Saturday, 21 January 2006, 12:00 CST

Text of report by Pakistan's PTV World television on 21 January

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has stressed the need for India and Pakistan to move ahead from confidence-building measures [CBMs] with passion for peace towards substantive dispute resolution, including the core issue of Kashmir. He was addressing a news conference at the UN headquarters in New York.

[Aziz - recording] Pakistan is a country which wants peace with all neighbours, including India. We have been making strenuous efforts to engage in a confidence building and a peace process with India, and both countries have met at various levels. The core of our relationship is the issue of Jammu and Kashmir. We are attempting and working towards finding a solution to this issue. Pakistan believes that this issue needs to be addressed for sustainable peace in South Asia.

Pakistan has proposed various scenarios to address this issue and is engaged in a dialogue with India, as well as the representatives of the Kashmiri people, to find a credible and lasting solution. These initiatives include demilitarization of Kashmir, self- governance, and creating an environment where the Kashmiri population on both sides of the Line of Control can interact with each other, can trade with each other, and can meet each other without restriction.

There is some progress but a lot more needs to be done. India- Pakistan relations have to move from simple CBMs to substantive dispute resolution and for this purpose Kashmir will have to be addressed. [End of recording]

Mr Shaukat Aziz said Pakistan is totally committed to combat terrorism, and terrorism is no solution to problems faced by the world at large.

In a response to a question, he said that Pakistan is against nuclear proliferation in any form.

Source: BBC Monitoring South Asia

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