Pak accuses India for adopting "amoral" position on Kashmir

Rezaul H Laskar
Islamabad, Sept 30 (PTI) Pakistan Thursday accused
India of adopting an "untenable, illegal and amoral" position
on the issue of Kashmir and said New Delhi should come forward
for meaningful and result-oriented talks aimed at resolving
the decades-old issue.
Responding to India's External Affairs Minister S M
Krishna's comments at the UN General Assembly about the need
for Pakistan to focus on internal concerns like terrorism
instead of imparting lessons on democracy and human rights to
India, Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said India should
take steps to resolve the Kashmir issue.
Basit told a weekly news briefing that Pakistan
found Krishna's suggestions "strange, to put it mildly".
"We are surprised that India, instead of resolving
the long-standing Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with
the relevant UN resolutions and aspirations of Kashmiris, is
not ready to dispense with its untenable, illegal and amoral
position on Kashmir," he said.
"No doubt Pakistan is facing domestic difficulties
and so is India. But that does not mean that we become
indifferent and not raise our voice against grisly operations
and grave violations of human rights in Jammu and Kashmir," he
added.
In the past few weeks, Pakistan has stepped up its
criticism of India's handling of protests in Jammu and
Kashmir. The Foreign Office has said New Delhi should review
its policy of describing Jammu and Kashmir as an integral part
of India and give up efforts to find a solution to the Kashmir
issue within the Indian constitution.
Basit noted that Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood
Qureshi had said that Pakistan wants to engage with India in a
sustained, result-oriented and meaningful dialogue process.
"Pakistan is ready to proceed with this dialogue but
obviously we are not interested in photo ops. What we are
interested in is that our two countries get together, discuss
the issues involved, especially the core issue of Jammu and
Kashmir, and work together for lasting peace and stability in
South Asia," he said.
Asked about the possibility of Western powers
mediating between India and Pakistan, Basit replied: "We are
not averse to third party mediation but we are aware of
India's position on this." (MORE) PTI f
PBL


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