ISLAMABAD, 9 November 2003 — Pakistan’s information minister traveled to India yesterday with a message of “peace and good wishes,” but also with a warning that Islamabad stands firm on its policy toward Kashmir and nuclear weapons.
Before departing for a conference in New Delhi, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said he would underscore a formal invitation to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to the Pakistani capital in January for a seven-nation regional summit.
The trip to the Indian capital for a preparatory meeting for the summit comes at a time when the two rival countries have taken tentative steps to improve their relations, open their borders to more civilian traffic and ease maritime tensions.
While such confidence-building measures would go ahead, Rashid said Pakistan’s insistence on negotiating a settlement for the 55-year-old Kashmir dispute and its policy of developing a nuclear capability are based on “principles and there can be no compromise on these issues.”
Speaking in Lahore on Friday, he said “no government in the past ever talked of compromise on the Kashmir issue, nor would any future government do so,” the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan news agency reported yesterday.
But he said he also will deliver a “message of peace and good wishes” to Vajpayee on behalf of Pakistan’s prime minister, Zafarullah Khan Jamali.
Rashid left for India via Dubai for a conference of information ministers of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, or SAARC, beginning today, to prepare for the Islamabad summit.
Both countries cut rail, air and road links following a December 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament, in which 14 people were killed. India said Pakistan’s spy agency was involved in the attack, a charge Pakistan denied.
SAARC summits can only be held if all seven heads of government agree to attend. Last year’s meeting was canceled when Vajpayee refused to come to Islamabad amid war jitters.
The group was formed in 1985 to strengthen economic ties among its members. It comprises India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka and represents one-fifth of the world’s population.
SAARC’s objectives of free trade and regional cooperation have been undermined by the bitter relations between Pakistan and India, which have fought three wars since they gained independence from Britain in 1947. Two of the wars began over Kashmir, which is divided between them but which each side claims in its entirety.
India accuses Pakistan of backing militants who have been fighting since 1989 to merge India’s portion of the region with Pakistan or make it independent. Pakistan says it supports the militants’ cause, but denies giving them military aid.
Musharraf Returns Home After Weeklong Visit to China, S. Korea
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf has returned home after a weeklong trip to China and South Korea to improve economic and defense ties, officials said yesterday.
Musharraf received a full ceremonial welcome led by Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali when he returned late Friday at a military airfield near Islamabad.
He told reporters that his meetings with Chinese and South Korean leaders were “very successful.”
In China, the president met his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao and other leaders. China is one of the main suppliers of defense equipment to Pakistan.
During his visit to Seoul, Musharraf met President Roh Moo-hyun and attended a forum of business leaders during which he sought more investment in Pakistan.
Addressing concerns about Pakistan’s military deals with North Korea, Musharraf acknowledged that his country had obtained short-range missiles and technology from Pyongyang, but insisted that Pakistan had not given the communist nation any nuclear weapons secrets in return.
He said the transfer of missile technology between Pakistan and North Korea is over, and Pakistan now makes missiles on its own.
North Korea has been under international pressure to abandon its nuclear weapons program.
Jamali Says Relief to People in Electricity Tariff Soon
Prime Minister Jamali talked about providing relief to the people in the electricity tariff soon.
“My government will continue working for the welfare and uplift of the people of Pakistan and like relief provided to the people by Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation Limited, the same would be provided by WAPDA and Karachi Electric Supply Company,” Jamali said talking to reporters in his chamber of the Parliament.
Asked to offer a comment over the continuous protest strategy of the combined opposition, Jamali said, “Surely it has put negative impact on the performance of the Parliament. We strongly believe that treasury and opposition benches are two vital components in the Parliament and both are responsible to run any Parliament in the world.”
He however added that besides every effort of the opposition to derail the ongoing session of the Parliament that would continue for two more days “the parliamentary year would be completed in Pakistan by Tuesday (Nov. 11).”
Prime Minister Jamali was of the view that the people of Pakistan are the best judges for the ongoing situation in and outside the Parliament. He said that the people know who wants to do something for their relief, welfare and uplift and who wants to block “masses development and every effort of poverty reduction.”
He said that the government did not close the doors of talks with the opposition and the next round of dialogue with the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal would be taking place on the return of Shujaat Hussein, president of Pakistan Muslim League.
Asked if Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed has been carrying some special message to India where he would be attending SAARC Information Ministers’ Conference, Jamali said, “Pakistani information minister is himself a message and would present Pakistani point of view in a very good manner there.”
