COLOMBO, 16 September 2003 — Pakistan yesterday asked India for a “serious suggestion” to jointly combat terror, especially in disputed Kashmir, cautioning New Delhi against mere “point scoring.”

Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmoud Kasuri said Islamabad was ready to discuss “all issues of concern to India and Pakistan” and wanted New Delhi to agree to go to the negotiating table.

Kasuri, in Sri Lanka to invite President Chandrika Kumaratunga to a January summit of South Asian leaders, played down Indian Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha’s weekend call to Pakistan to join New Delhi in its battle against “terror.”

“If Pakistan can cooperate with the United States with regard to fighting terrorism in Afghanistan, why can’t Pakistan cooperate with India in fighting terrorism in India and specially in Jammu and Kashmir,” Sinha said in an interview with AFP in New Delhi. “I can’t understand what is holding (us) up. We are ready to cooperate with Pakistan in this fight, even with (President Pervez) Musharraf,” Sinha said.

Kasuri told the Foreign Correspondents’ Association of Sri Lanka that it was not the first time that India was issuing such calls without doing anything to initiate a dialogue.

“If the foreign minister of India is making a serious suggestion, let’s start talking,” Kasuri said. “If he (Sinha) is just making a point, that is not desirable. Point scoring will not get India and Pakistan anywhere.”

He said Indo-Pakistan relations had affected the functioning of the seven-member South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) whose January summit would be a year overdue because of bilateral bickering.

“We are quite prepared to talk and cooperate with India in all matters. Let’s start talking,” he said, adding that at the moment “we don’t even attend SAARC conferences.”

“We have to talk on all issues concerning India and Pakistan.” He repeated a suggestion made last week in Katmandu that SAARC observers could be posted in Kashmir to verify Indian claims that Pakistan was funneling over Islamic rebels.

“We can’t have India in the position of accuser, prosecutor and judge. Let us invite outsiders. They can be SAARC observers,” Kasuri said, adding that Pakistan was ready for international “mediation” or “facilitation” over Kashmir.

He said SAARC, founded in 1985 along the lines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), had failed its people because it had become a hostage of Indo-Pakistan relations.

Kasuri charged that Indo-Pakistan relations in turn had become a hostage of India’s domestic politics and said South Asia could learn from the successes of ASEAN.

India accuses Pakistan of arming, training and funding rebels fighting since 1989 in Kashmir, a charge Islamabad denies.

Al-Qaeda Threat to Musharraf

Due to ‘Misunderstanding’

A purported call by Al-Qaeda to rise up against President Pervez Musharraf was issued due to a “gross misunderstanding” of Pakistan’s national interests, Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmoud Kasuri said here yesterday.

Islamabad was committed as a strong ally of the United States in its battle against international terrorism, he said.

“You can’t be popular with everyone,” Kasuri told the Foreign Correspondents’ Association of Sri Lanka during a visit here.

“As far as Pakistan is concerned, it is a cool analysis of its national interests in keeping with its obligations to international conventions. We are bound by them.”