ISLAMABAD, 30 October 2003 — Pakistan agreed yesterday to a series of Indian proposals for improving relations, including a bus service between the Indian and Pakistani sectors of Kashmir, but it insisted on United Nations monitoring of frontier checkpoints in the disputed zone.
While Pakistan accepted most of the Indian 12-point proposal outright and added some points of its own, Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar said real peace between the longtime rivals was only possible by resolving the Kashmir problem through dialogue.
“The time has come for the two countries to indulge in serious negotiations,” Khokhar told a news conference. “We are clear in our mind. We want to improve our relations with India, but this is going to be on the basis of dignity and honor.”
Last week, New Delhi announced a series of proposals to ease tensions with nuclear rival Pakistan after a December 2001 attack on India’s Parliament brought the South Asian neighbors to the brink of war. India accused Pakistan of sponsoring the attack, a charge Islamabad denied.
The 12-point proposal included expanding travel and sporting links and easing visa regulations. The most sweeping point, however, concerned opening the road from Srinagar to Muzzafarabad, the capitals of Indian- and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir.
The historic thoroughfare has huge symbolic importance to Kashmiris on opposite sides of the cease-fire line.
Khokhar said Pakistan accepts the idea in principle, but that the frontier crossings must be manned by United Nations personnel.
India has barred UN observers from manning outposts on its side of the border.
In India, Khokhar’s news conference was broadcast live on all private television news channels. The Ministry of External Affairs had no immediate reaction. Officials said it may take a few days for India to mull over the proposal and come out with its own response.
Pakistani officials reported earlier that US Secretary of State Colin Powell telephoned Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, who is visiting Spain, on Tuesday to urge Islamabad to move forward in talks with India — an indication of the level of concern that the South Asian rivalry arouses in foreign capitals.
Khokhar repeated that Pakistan was disappointed with India’s refusal to reopen all-encompassing peace talks that would include negotiations on Kashmir, which Pakistan considers the core problem.
India has long insisted that the way to peace with Pakistan is through a step-by-step process that involves normalizing trade and people-to-people contacts, before tackling Kashmir.
