Govt gives guarded response to Musharraf's proposal on Kashmir

Appearing unenthusiastic about Pakistan President Gen Pervez Musharraf's new proposal on the Kashmir issue, India on Tuesday made it clear that any such suggestion should be taken up only at the ongoing composite dialogue process.

Unwilling to get into another war of words on this issue through the media, the government's response was guarded. "We have heard these comments. We do not believe that Jammu and Kashmir is a subject on which discussion can be held through the media," external affairs ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna told reporters in Delhi.

Contending that J&K was already one of the subjects in the composite dialogue process, he said, "If there are any proposals, suggestions, that (composite dialogue) is the forum we expect they will be brought to."

New Delhi has repeatedly told Islamabad that the issue of autonomy in Jammu and Kashmir was a matter of discussion within India and that there was no question of change of the external status of the state.

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Musharraf had on Monday suggested that India and Pakistan could consider the option of identifying some 'regions' of Kashmir on both sides of the Line of Control, demilitarise them and grant them independence or joint control or govern them under the aegis of the United Nations.

Musharraf's propositions are being viewed in India as indicative of a realisation on Pakistan's part that the position held by it hitherto on J&K are neither sustainable nor practicable. It is felt that there still remains a considerable distance to traverse before a realistic solution emerges.

The Pakistan president's remarks are not in tune with the observation made by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during their meeting in New York in September that any solution to the J&K issue cannot be based on redrawing of boundaries or another partition.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz will be visiting India in the second half of November as SAARC chairman and is expected to hold bilateral talks with Manmohan Singh.

The two sides have drawn a schedule for talks from November-end on eight subjects, including expert-level meetings on nuclear and conventional confidence building measures and commencing the proposed bus link between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad.

Foreign Secretaries Shyam Saran and Riaz Khokhar are slated to meet in December to chalk out the schedule for the second round of meetings on the eight-point composite dialogue, which includes J&K, peace and security.

The Indian and Pakistani prime ministers will get a chance to meet a second time during the SAARC Summit in Dhaka in January 2005.