Islamabad: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf plans to discuss ways to resolve the
Kashmir issue with his US counterpart George W Bush in New York later in September,
which would include recognition of line of control (LoC) as a permanent border and
resumption of trade relations with India, media reports said.
The package of solutions, being considered by Musharraf in the run up to his visit
later this month to New York to attend the UN General Assembly (UNGA), included
regularisation of LoC as international border in "exchange to withdrawal of Indian
claims on Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Northern Areas", and normalisation of trade
relations between the two
nations, Pakistani daily 'The News' said.
Also if an understanding was worked out, Islamabad would "make it clear" to Kashmiri
groups that the elections to the J-K Assembly would be an internal affair of India.
Musharraf's Kashmir package would include providing facilities for US to set an
airbase at Skaradu in Pakistan's Northern Areas to conduct long term military
operations against al-Qaida and Taleban, the paper said.
While Pakistani officials were not available for comment, chairman of Pakistan's
National Kashmir Committee, Abdul Qayyum Khan said that the news item made
an "incredible" reading but sounds "irrelevant and far-fetched".
The paper said the package, expected to invite a barrage of criticism from parties
and groups in Pakistan, was being given top-level consideration in Washington
against the backdrop of certain developments including US Marines-led chase of al-
Qaida and Taleban remnants in tribal areas along
Durand Line.
PTI
