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Is US using the Kashmir issue to try and get a permanent foothold in South Asia? Post your views

Islamabad: Dismissing the West Asia type peace-model for Kashmir, Pakistan Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali has said India and Pakistan should draw their own road map and suggested a step-by-step approach for coming to the core issue.

"The Pakistan government and Indian government are supposed to draw up the roadmap ourselves. So I hope we can do it," he said in an interview to a Japanese newspaper when asked if he favoured a "road map" similar to US-backed West Asia process.

"India and Pakistan usually rely on the bilateral relations and talks although there is a third party, which is the Kashmiri people. That is the core issue and that could be the third factor or third party who is involved," he said.

In another interview Jamali was quoted as saying that he supported the idea of step-by-step approach to rebuild confidence between the two countries "as long as the dispute over Kashmir was not forgotten."

Observing that it is very difficult for Pakistan to give up the "original principle, the Kashmir issue," he however said, "but we have to pave a way to come to the core issue."

PTI