RAWALPINDI, 17 November 2005 — Last month’s earthquake is an opportunity for India and Pakistan to reach a “final solution” to their longstanding dispute over Kashmir, President Pervez Musharraf said yesterday.

But India also needed to grasp the opportunity as “you don’t clap with one hand”, Musharraf said at a media briefing about the Oct. 8 earthquake that killed 73,000 people in Pakistan. “I think it is an occasion which should be utilized to reach out for a solution of the Kashmir dispute,” he said.

“I only hope that both sides have realized that a permanent, final solution of Kashmir is more possible now because Kashmir has been affected,” he said.

They have opened all five of the crossing points on the Line of Control to allow humanitarian supplies through to people affected by the quake. It is the first time the crossings have been opened in almost 60 years.

Musharraf said Pakistan needed $5.2 billion to recover from quake’s devastation, adding he expected to raise the money at a weekend conference of donors.

The figure, similar to one Musharraf announced earlier this month, was based on estimates by UN agencies, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and Pakistan, he said. It included $3.5 billion for reconstruction, $1.5 billion for relief and $100 million for rehabilitation, Musharraf told reporters.

“We have to have $5.2 billion. My expectation of the donor conference is that we should be able to raise this amount,” he said. “This is now the focus because I don’t think that Pakistan can do it alone,” he said.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the head of international financing agencies and aid groups are expected in Islamabad for the Nov. 19 donors’ conference.

Musharraf said the amount received so far for the reconstruction effort was negligible and Pakistan was prepared to “tighten its belt” if necessary. “If the world community doesn’t come up, we will do something ourselves — our economy is strong enough,” Musharraf said.

About a $1 billion purchase of an airborne surveillance system from Swedish firms Saab and Ericsson, Musharraf said it had not yet been decided.

The system includes Saab 2000 turboprop aircraft equipped with airborne radar from Ericsson. Saab has said important conditions remain to be settled for the contract, of which Ericsson will have a third.

“We haven’t decided it as yet. I need to look into it,” Musharraf said in response to a journalist’s question whether there would be any delay in the deal.

Kashmiris Will Be Allowed

to Cross Border Today

Indian Kashmiris will be allowed to cross the de facto border with Pakistani Kashmir today to check on family living in the earthquake-ruined region, according to a Pakistani official. The move comes weeks after Pakistan and India agreed to the humanitarian gesture, to help the movement of aid and to allow divided families to meet across the militarized boundary.

Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam told Reuters yesterday the first movement of people will be across the border between Chakothi and the Indian town of Uri. Today’s crossing will be one-way traffic, with 83 people from Indian Kashmir allowed to make the trip to Pakistani territory. But none of the 120 people from Pakistani Kashmir who applied to go the other way have had their names cleared by the Indian authorities.

—Additional input from agencies