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‘Indo-Pak ties can progress if Kashmir issue is kept aside’

By admin | March 4, 2008

Contending that the Kashmir issue was already on the “back-burner”, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Ahmed Mukhtar onn Monday expressed confidence that Indo-Pak relations can progress if it was kept aside.

Mukhtar, one of the contenders for the Prime Minister’s post, told NDTV, “we should leave that issue (Kashmir) on a side and then work. I am sure after sometime we will be in a position to find some kind of adjustment in that area where both parties will agree and Kashmir will thrive as Kashmir”.

Further asked whether the Kashmir issue would be put on the backburner, he said, “It has already taken a backseat and the new political party will not like to bring out that on the front seat. I am sure if Kashmir issue remains on the back seat for sometime, we can have a good relationship”.

Quizzed on the changing attitude towards Kashmir, he said, “why should we change our attitude on Kashmir, when the Army is satisfied with the way they are working. We will probably continue with that and may be we will come to some agreement and even if you don’t come to an agreement we don’t want to fight.”

Envisioning a united South Asia on the lines of the European Union, Mukhtar said, “there is a likelihood that may be one day we also become like the European Union, we also open up our borders and all the countries, who are members of the SAARC can have that kind of a relationship”.

Favouring the removal of President Pervez Musharraf from his post, Mukhtar said, “…yes I would like to have a President who is a Democrat, who believes in democracy, who doesn’t believe in his own self-made democracy”.

“This country needs proper democracy,” he added.

Topics: Kashmir News |