NEW YORK: There is a need for the ‘United States to play a stronger and more active role in trying to resolve the Kashmir dispute, said a leading Pakistani senator.
“Although statements of position and perceptions (on Kashmir) are good, that is not enough. There is a need to go further than that,” said Shafqat Mahmood, a prominent senator from the People’s Party of Pakistan.
He was referring to President Bill Clinton’s articulation, during Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s visit to the United States, of the need for a referendum to ascertain the wishes of the Kashmiri people.
Mahmood said: “The U.S. can play a stronger and much more positive role in trying to resolve the Kashmir dispute. In multilateral forums the U;S. carries a lot of weight and even bilateral forums, such as in relations with India. I think if the U.S. decides to play a more active and stronger role that will make a difference.”
Mahmood, who sits on both Pakistan’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Senate Defense Committee, was speaking on June 8 during a discussion at the Asia Society on Pakistan US. bilateral relations, He ‘was in the United States on a three-week visit.
He said the end of the cold war has not stabilized international relations, particularly in South Asia, where a cold war is still on over Kashmir. “We have always felt that there is a reason for the United States to continue to engage itself in South Asia,” he said, “and we continued to express a desire to have a very good relationship with the U.S. But unfortunately, during the crisis period in our relationship, all of our concerns were not given due consideration.”
“Since 1990 there have been several separate meetings at the Foreign Secretary level between India and Pakistan. The last one took place in January 1994.”
He said: “Our experience of these bilateral dialogues has been that the moment the talks begin, India continues to state its position that Kashmiris an integral part of India and therefore No progress is possible. If you do not want to discuss that the people want self-determination, what are we g0ing to discuss?”
Speaking about U.S. Pakistan ties, he said that after 1993 relations have been on the mend, Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s visit to the United. States created a “deeper understanding” of Pakistan’s security concerns, he said, with President Bill Clinton admitting that Pakistan had received an unfair treatment as a result of the Pressler Amendment and that Pakistan had not been compensated for the money it had paid for the purchase of F16 aircraft.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 23, 1995
