Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri on Tuesday lauded Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's peace initiative on Kashmir and said the Indian prime minister has 'demonstrated real leadership' by taking the bold step.
"He has shown much strength in the background of very provocative statements from his ministers. I am quite happy with Vajpayee. His heart is in the right place," Kasuri said in an interview to Karan Thapar in Islamabad for SABe TV.
He said a series of statements from India demanding that Pakistan put a complete stop to cross-border terrorism have not ruffled Pakistan. "We politicians talk to different audiences, it happens all the time. We have to learn to live with each other. We cannot chose interlocutors. We have to deal with whosoever is in power in both the countries," Kasuri said.
On Pakistan's perception that Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani is a hardliner, he said that just as Indians need to stop demonising President Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistanis too should stop demonising Advani.
Though the Agra summit achieved little, Kasuri considers it successful. "Both Vajpayee and Musharraf behaved very responsibly in Agra. Both of them were denied a Nobel Peace Prize in the last minute. They had agreed to a draft. I know it and you know it," he said.
Denying the existence of militants' training camps in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir, Kasuri said Pakistan has prevented nine out of ten militants from crossing over to Jammu and Kashmir.
Replying to persistent questions about reports on the presence of 120 militant camps in PoK, he said: "These are allegations. The number you mention is staggering, unless they are referring to refugee camps. There are no training camps. There are no terrorist training camps. These are refugee camps.
"We try to seal the borders, which we have done by the way. If the infiltration is taking place, it is despite the efforts of the government of Pakistan. We are trying to stop it. But we do not have Alladdin's lamp," he said.
"We are seriously interested in dialogue. We have to address mutual concerns. Pakistan has to address India's concerns and India has to address Pakistan's concerns," he said.
When reminded about his statements in April this year about the closure of camps, Kasuri said he only referred to camps to collect funds, not terrorist training camps. "Those references to camps I made was for collection of funds. Lot of money was collected over the years and President Musharraf himself said money was not properly used."
Asked whether he could say with confidence that there are no militant camps in PoK, he said: "I am the foreign minister for six months. I know that there are no training camps. The camps I had in my mind were the ones President Musharraf ordered to close down."
Kasuri admitted Pakistan was not in a position to stop infiltration even if it wanted to, "because people are in suicide missions."
Asked if this amounted to an admission that the Pakistan army has failed to prevent infiltration, he said the Indian Army deployed 600,000 troops on the LoC, which amounted to placing a soldier every three meters, and still failed to prevent infiltration.
On why Pakistan failed to return even one wanted terrorist to India even though it handed over some 500 to the United States, Kasuri said Pakistan and the US have been close allies for over 50 years. "We were allies since Korean war. Also, there was a great deal of interaction between ISI and CIA over the years whereas India and Pakistan fought three wars. It is unrealistic to expect cooperation between [Indian and Pakistani] intelligence agencies," he said and hoped the day would come when such cooperation would be possible.
Kasuri denied he is a 'puppet' in Pakistan's military-dominated political set-up. "I have resigned from Parliament due to differences with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. If I disagree with President Musharraf, I would not stay in the cabinet," he said and added that Jamali and Musharraf have given him a free hand.
He also denied that the Pakistani army exerts pressure on politicians. "Pakistan army is not a Nazi or Mussolini army. It operates within a framework. It understands democracy. If you think Pakistan army orders and others execute, you are
sadly mistaken."
Asked whether the Jamali government would last till July and if he would continue to be the foreign minister, Kasuri said: "It looks like that, yes. I will be the foreign minister."
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