SAARC should step in to mend Indo-Pak ties: Musharraf

Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf (R) salutes as he arrives accompanied by the President of the Institute of Regional Studies, Major-General Jamshed Ayaz Khan at a seminar on South Asia in Islamabad yesterday. Musharraf urged the regional forum, South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, (SAARC) to step in to help spur on stalled peace moves between Pakistan and India. Photo: AFP

Musharraf said the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, which groups Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, should take on the job of resolving regional conflicts, of which the worst was Pakistan's 56-year old dispute with India.

"There is a need to amend the SAARC charter, it should be the forum to resolve regional and bilateral conflicts," Musharraf told a conference of academics, scholars and serving and former ambassadors from Europe, the United States, China, Japan and India.

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"The worst dispute in the region is the Kashmir dispute, in which many wars have been fought and many people have been killed across the LoC (Line of Control).

"Kashmir has become a flashpoint."

Since the subcontinent was divided by outgoing coloniser Britain in 1947, Pakistan and India have been fighting for control of the Himalayan region of Kashmir, which straddles both countries.

Its status was never resolved during partition, and it has been the cause of two wars between the South Asian giants in 1948 and 1965. They were close to war again over Kashmir for most of last year.

Both claim full control of the scenic region, but it has been divided between them along a ceasefire line, which was first drawn up after their 1948 war and in 1971 became the Line of Control.

"The conflict between India and Pakistan is affecting the economic development of other countries of the region," Musharraf said.

"If we are sincere about development and prosperity of the region then we should resolve all regional and bilateral disputes through the SAARC forum.

"From this a new confidence will emerge in the region."

Musharraf's call for mediation by SAARC comes four months after Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's peace offer, which was matched immediately by Pakistan's offer for dialogue.

But the reconciliation process has yet to move beyond the resumption of bus links and ambassadorial-level diplomatic ties.

SAARC has often been pilloried as an ineffective forum, and India has long objected to its meetings being used as forums for addressing its conflict with Pakistan.

An annual summit was supposed to have been held in the Pakistani capital in January but it has been delayed by India's refusal earlier in the year to attend.

It has now been rescheduled to January 2004 and India has said it would attend.

Despite apparent sluggishness at an official level there have been ongoing people-to-people contacts in recent months in the form of exchange of visits by parliamentarians, businessmen and youths.

A 60-member Indian delegation of ruling and opposition MPs, journalists and former diplomats is currently in Islamabad for a two-day peace seminar sponsored by the South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA).

"It's a good sign that the Indian delegation is here," said Musharraf, announcing he would meet the delegation on Tuesday.