Pakistan Seeks Peaceful Relations with India: Musharraf

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, September 10, 2002

Pakistan Seeks Peaceful Relations with India: Musharraf

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"An enlightened sense of national interest guides our policy of seeking peaceful relations with India. However, our initiatives continue to meet with Indian intransigence," Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has said.

Musharraf said this Sunday at Harvard University entitled "Pakistan in the 21st Century: Our Vision for the Future," Associated Press of Pakistan reported on Monday.

"Since September 11, we have faced a relentless Indian campaign to cast Pakistan and the Kashmiris on the wrong side of the terrorism issue," he said, adding "The fact is that Kashmir is a 54 year old dispute and it is the unfinished business of the creation of independent Pakistan and India."

"Terrorism did not create the tragedy of Kashmir," he said, explaining, "On the contrary, the long delay in the resolution of the dispute has led to desperation and militancy."

"The solution lies in giving them (Kashmiris) their inalienable right to determine their own future in accordance with the resolutions of the UN Security Council," he said.

Indo-Pakistan relations were "at their lowest ebb," Musharraf said, adding, "their forces confront each other eyeball to eyeball with most dangerous possibilities of the eruption of conflict 'by accident or design'."

Musharraf said, "We await de-escalation and resumption of dialogue to resolve our disputes with India - specially Kashmir dispute" as nothing could be gained from "military brinkmanship."

Musharraf said Pakistan had made "major commitments and taken significant steps to ease the current crisis" and India must take "reciprocal steps" in order to impart permanence and sustainability to Pakistan's initiatives for peace.

"Peace and security in South Asia are vital to economic development and prosperity in the region and it will also contribute significantly to the promotion of international peace and stability given South Asia's strategic location astride regions with vast natural resources and economic potential," he said.

About Pakistan's commitment to fight terrorism, he said, "Pakistan is, and will remain, a key member of the global coalitionagainst international terrorism."

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