Pakistan Muslim League (N) has out rightly rejected the Pakistan-India joint statement, alleging that President General Musharraf had taken a U-turn on Kashmir issue.
The Party Chairman Raja Zafarul Haq told a news conference here on Wednesday at the party's camp office that Pakistanis and Kashmiris will not accept any under pressure decision on Kashmir.
He was reacting to the joint statement issued, following Musharraf-Vajpayee meeting.
He charged, "weak governments do often take U-turn on issues. Any decision on the core issue, without taking the Kashmiris and the Parliament into confidence will not be acceptable."
Raja Zafar opined that India will exploit the document and added that there will be no sustainable peace in the region unless the Kashmir tangle was resolved in accordance with Kashmiris' aspirations.
Describing the government policy on Kashmir, against the spirit of an on-going struggle for right to self-determination, PML chairman pointed out that for the first in history of bilateral the Pak-India joint statement had no reference of UN resolutions on the issue. In this context, he mentioned the Simla Accord and Lahore Declaration.
"Under, the UN charter, all the member countries were bound by its resolutions", Raja Zafar added.
PML (N) chairman said that there were as many as 21 resolutions about Kashmir issue and the last resolution was passed after the Simla Accord between Pakistan and India.
Expressing serious apprehensions about India's sincerity to resolve the core issue, he said by 2005, New Delhi wants to crush the Kashmiris' freedom struggle and is forcing Islamabad to accept the status quo on the Line of Control (LoC).
"Even if India will talk to Pakistan, it will discuss Azad Kashmir, as it had already declared Occupied Kashmir as its integral part," PML leader maintained.
PML (N) chairman was of the view that during Musharraf-Vajpayee meeting, Islamabad had conceded while New Delhi gained on the issue of Kashmir.
Referring to Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali's speech during the summit, he said Premier Jamali too made no mention of Kashmir, which sounded intriguing.
Other senior party members, Zafar Ali Shah, ex-Deputy Speaker National Assembly Jafar Iqbal and spokesman Siddiqul Farooq flanked Raja Zafar.
Meanwhile in a press release issued by its media centre, Pakistan Peoples Party while objecting to the joint statement asserted that it should have been between Premier Jamali and his Indian counterpart.
"The party believes that the talks should have taken place between the two elected prime ministers, instead of an elected prime minister (Vajpayee) and a chief of army staff (Musharraf)," the release noted.
PPP cautioned that the peace process would remain fragile because of lack of consensus among political parties.
The press release pointed out that the process will not move ahead if leaders of leading political parties were kept outside the country and systematic decimation of mainstream political forces continued.
Comments
Comments are closed.