Pakistani politicians speaking at cross-purposes on Kashmir?

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ISLAMABAD - Are Pakistani politicians speaking at cross-purposes on Kashmir? It would seem so, with Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi expressing ignorance that the issue was close to resolution as a result of back-channel diplomacy with India by the previous government.

“Neither I, nor the people of Pakistan have any knowledge about a Kashmir solution evolved by the previous government,” he told reporters here Sunday.

No such proposal had ever been debated, nor was there any record about it at the foreign office, he added.

Qureshi’s predecessor Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri contested this Monday, saying that according to his information, the record was available with the Pakistani government of the back-channel talks with India on Kashmir.

“In fact, President Asif Ali Zardari, in his first press conference had referred to the progress on Kashmir and had stated rather over enthusiastically that he was aware of the progress made on Kashmir dispute and that the nation would soon hear good news over the issue,” Kasuri said in a statement here.

“At least President Zardari, according to my knowledge, was aware of the details of the back-channel diplomacy and the presidency had the related record of the details regarding talks on the Kashmir issue,” Kasuri added.

He also found it “unfortunate and unbelievable” that “there was a total disconnect between the presidency and the foreign office over the issue”.

“If the presidency has the record, normally the foreign office should have an access to it if it is related to the foreign policy of Pakistan.

“Moreover, it would be fair assumption that the presidency would share the details with the foreign minister and as such, I find the foreign minister’s statement most surprising,” Kasuri added.

He also pointed out that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, on May 2, 2009 had also referred to the development on Kashmir when he stated: “I have always believed that a strong, peaceful, moderate Pakistan is in India’s interest. We worked hard on that and in fact, I and (then president) General Musharraf had reached nearly an agreement, a non-territorial solution to all the problems but then because of the difficulties with the chief justice and other fronts, the whole process came to a halt.”

The reference was to Musharraf’s running battle with Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry in 2007, with the latter being sacked, reinstated and then sacked again when an emergency was declared Noc 3, 2007. Chaudhry was again reinstated last year.

Maintaining that information about the progress in the back-channel diplomacy on Kashmir was in the public domain, Kasuri pointed to an article written by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Steve Coll in the New Yorker in March 2009.

After talking to Indian, Pakistani and American officials, Coll had written in detail about the progress on the back-channel track, Kasuri said.

The back-channel negotiations with India were on the basis of peace with honour and in accordance with the aspirations of the people of Kashmir and acceptability to the people of India and Pakistan, Kasuri contended.