Islamabad:
Pakistan and India were close to resolving the Kashmir issue in 2006 and both countries had even agreed that neither would claim victory if the dragging dispute was resolved, former Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri said today.
Both countries were so close to a solution that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was expected to visit Pakistan in 2006 to settle the dispute, Kasuri said, during an even organised in Lahore by a leading Pakistani media group. "Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was to visit Pakistan in late 2006 but elections in some Indian states and the judicial crisis in Pakistan upset all the efforts," he said.
He was referring to a political crisis triggered by former military ruler Pervez Musharraf's decision to remove Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry from his post in 2007. The two countries had also decided that neither would claim victory if their efforts resulted in the resolution of the Kashmir dispute, Kasuri said.
However, domestic problems in both countries put paid to the efforts to settle the Kashmir issue, he added. The progress made by Pakistan and India in talks on the Kashmir dispute could serve as a starting point in fresh negotiations by both sides on the issue, he said. Pakistan and India had agreed on a "joint mechanism" to settle the Kashmir issue, he said, giving details of the talks.
"The Kashmiris demanded the right of self-determination and withdrawal of all Indian forces from occupied territory," Kasuri added. Pakistan, India and the Kashmiri leadership were involved in the discussions. "Pakistan wanted the solution as per the wishes of the Kashmiri people," Kasuri said.
Several leading Indian and Pakistani personalities, including Mubashir Hassan, businessman Amin Hashwani, I A Rahman, Shafqat Mehmood, Amitabh Matto, Prem Shankar Jha, Admiral L Ramdas and former Foreign Secretary Salman Haider, participated in the event.