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Demilitarise the disputed state and change its status: Kashmir can be resolved in a day, says Musharraf

* President urges India to realise that it cannot dictate terms to Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: India and Pakistan can resolve the Kashmir dispute in “one day” provided the two sides give up their “maximalist course”, President Pervez Musharraf said in a meeting with Indian journalists.

Gen Musharraf had a “simple” solution to his country’s long dispute with India over Kashmir: New Delhi should pull troops out of the Himalayan territory and agree to compromise over its status.

“It is simple, identify the region, demilitarise it and change its status,” the president said during the meeting in Islamabad with a group of Indian visitors that included Asian Age correspondent Seema Mustafa, veteran columnist Kuldip Nayar and former foreign secretary Salman Haider. He said if both the governments were serious about resolving the issue, they could do it in “a full day’s sitting”.

“How many times can we keep discussing options, once, twice, four times, six times? How much more can one discuss?” Musharraf asked.

As far as he was concerned, Pakistan and India could “easily” resolve the issue within two or three days, he said, and added that with sufficient preparations, they could solve it in one day.

Musharraf said he came away from last month’s meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New York with renewed hope. The New York statement had changed the atmosphere for the better and the people were more optimistic now that matters were progressing, he added. “The body language was very good,” he said. For the first time since Singh’s Congress party came to power in May, “I can see a ray of light at the end of the tunnel,” he added.

But he also expressed frustration that the nuclear-armed neighbours had not made faster progress in talks this year. “Why should the next meeting be after six months when there is no reason? We should keep meeting and taking the process forward,” he said, and added it was important to make “visible progress” on Jammu and Kashmir on the ground. He suggested that both sides eliminate all options that were not acceptable to the other side and then begin discussions on those left on the table.

“These two steps have to be merged (otherwise), all hell will break loose,” he contended. “We are both at present on a maximalist course; if there has to be an agreement, both sides have to step down,” he added.

Musharraf said: “I am a realist not an idealist and I know that Pakistan cannot dictate terms to India, and that there can be no military solution.... (But) India must also realise that it cannot dictate terms to Pakistan or humiliate Pakistan.”

He said he had never set a timeframe for resolution of the Kashmir issue. It was not that he was rushing a solution, but he believed that the issue did not require too much time to resolve. When it was pointed out that if the other seven issues in the basket were addressed it could create the right atmospherics for a discussion on Jammu and Kashmir, the President explained patiently that this was not possible in Pakistan. “This is a very strong lobby here, you must understand,” he said. “We must strengthen the moderates but postponing Kashmir would encourage extremists.” The President indicated that a solution to the Muzaffarabad-Srinagar bus appeared to be on the cards, and that the details were being worked out. He suggested that the Kashmiri leaders should first meet Indian government leaders and then travel on the bus to Pakistan on its inaugural run. On the gas pipeline, he said, “The ball is entirely in India’s court. We have decided we want it, and we are going ahead whether India comes on board or not”. He said that the agreement with Iran would be finalised in November this year. agencies

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