Islamabad: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on July 31 said Islamabad would pursue the process of engagement with India on the basis of sovereign equality and would never allow the core issue of Kashmir to be "sidelined".

"Kashmir is the core issue and therefore Pakistan would continue its efforts for a peaceful solution of the issue in accordance with the wishes of the Kashmiri people," he said at the concluding session of the conference of the country's diplomatic mission chiefs.

"Pakistan would not allow the Kashmir dispute to be sidelined, in its dialogue with India," the official APP news agency quoted Musharraf as saying at the four-day conference.

Musharraf said at the conference, convened by the Foreign Office to review the country's foreign policy, that Pakistan would continue to "strive for a peaceful and stable neighbourhood with a view to creating an environment for collective development and prosperity".

He emphasised Pakistan's support for the Bonn process, the government of President Hamid Karzai, and reconstruction in Afghanistan. He told the envoys that Pakistan would continue to make its contribution to the war on terrorism in its own interest and in pursuance of its own strategic objectives.

Pakistan, he said, was on its way to become a modern and democratic Islamic state and urged the envoys to project the country as a pivotal state in the region, engaged in the tasks of fashioning a tolerant society, seeking peace with its neighbours, and making impressive strides in the economic sphere.

PTI