ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan foreign secretary Saharyar Khan last week said there was no proposal to address the Siachen question separately from the Kashmir issue and ruled out any talks with India in the near future until a conducive atmosphere is created.

 Asked if these were conditions, the foreign secretary said they were not conditions, but factors which Pakistan has already elaborated, lifting of the Hazratbal siege, ending repression in Kashmir and withdrawing the security forces from the Valley. Saharyar Khan was speaking to journalists at the weekly foreign office briefing. Significantly, the briefing was on the same the day that the US assistant secretary of State, Robin Raphael left and instead of the official spokesman, Khan came himself.

He said “As you know we are in principle agreeable we holding talks but the present circumstances arc not conducive”. He added that unless India was willing to talk on Kashmir in its entirety, it will be futile to hold talks,

Asked to comment on a report which had wrongly quoted a senior American official saying that India and Pakistan are close to an agreement on Siachen, the foreign secretary, said India and Pakistan had been {in 1989) very close to an agreement, but the Indian government did not fee! That it could sign an agreement, though there was nothing contentious left to be worked out. Asked if the Pakistan prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, will visit New Delhi in December for the UNESCO conference on population, he said” we shall have to wait a little while,” Pakistan is not committing itself to this invitation and wants 10 wail until something emerges in Hazratbal. If things improve, there is a possibility of her visiting New Delhi.

Another possibility is that even if the Hazratbal shrine issue is resolved amicably, she may avoid the visit due to the general conditions in Kashmir.

Asked if he still felt that the statement made by Robin Raphael in Washington regarding Kashmir, was a step further from the earlier American position, Saharyar Khan, parried the question, saying that both John Malott and Raphael had said Kashmir alone is not the dispute, but the whole territory 1s a disputed territory and “we regard it as a reflection of the reality. Commenting on the Indian army chief’s reported statement that the siege of the Hazratbal shrine, he said it is without foundation and regrettable, coming as it does, Iron such a senior officer.

Article extracted from this publication >>  November 19, 1993