Islamabad: Pakistan today (Dec 15, 2003) denied Benazir Bhutto's assertions that it had resorted to a low intensity proxy war against India from 1988 and said it did not agree with the former Premier's view that the two countries should improve trade links before the Kashmir issue is solved.

Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan told reporters that Bhutto's comments at a seminar at New Delhi last week that Pakistan had resorted to a proxy war against India were not true.

"This is not true. Kashmir freedom struggle is indigenous. Pakistan extended moral and diplomatic support," he said, adding that, "Pakistan and India were primary parties to the dispute."

"Primary objective is to ascertain the wishes of the people of Kashmir. I do not want to go into the specifics of the allegations. At the moment this is our stated position and real position on the ground," he said.

He, however, declined to answer a question whether Bhutto would be tried for treason.

Khan also disagreed with Bhutto's view that India and Pakistan should normalise their relations by improving trade ties before solving issues like Kashmir.

"Our point of view is that Kashmir is the core issue if you want to resolve this issue, the relationship between India and Pakistan can improve substantially and substantively. Therefore there is no way we can sideline this issue," he said, adding that both sides should resolve it whenever the dialogue process begins.

PTI

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Kashmir is NOT negotiable