NEW DELHI, July 27:
India and Pakistan were about to reach a “framework” on Kashmir during UPA I rule and both sides even had decided not to proclaim “victory” post the announcement, former Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri said today.
“We were about to reach a solution on Kashmir, a framework. Solution could only be arrived at by Cabinets and Parliament. We could only provide a framework. But we were trying to deliver something. I will give the details in my book to be published later this year,” Kasuri said.
Speaking during a discussion on ‘Improving Indo-Pak relations’ here, Kasuri said it was the outcome of three years of “hardwork” by the then Pakistani President Pervez Musharaf and India’s then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh but the framework did not materialise due to subsequent internal turmoil in Pakistan in 2007.
“One of the secrets of our success with Dr Manmohan Singh was that there was an unwritten agreement between the two sides that when the framework on Kashmir is announced, neither side will proclaim victory,” he said.
Kasuri, who was the Foreign Minister during the Presidency of Pervez Musharraf, said the Ufa (Russia) meeting between Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif and the subsequent joint-statement were not “properly managed”.
Emphasising on the need for talks, he said the positive side of Ufa was that the two countries met.
“The two foreign offices would have done better if they were allowed to do what they are supposed to do,” he said.
Speaking at the discussion, senior lawyer Ram Jethmalani said that he believes that Musharraf was “determined” to solve the Kashmir problem and the former Pakistan President’s position was “right” during the failed Agra talks in 2001.
“It was due to Indian obduracy which prevented a solution,” he claimed.
Referring to his work in the ‘Kashmir Committee’, which he was leading, Jethmalani said that he would not call moderate sections of the Hurriyat as “separatist”. “It’s an insult to call them separatists.”
Congress Rajya Sabha MP Mani Shankar Aiyar said that the big mistakes of Sharm el-Sheikh and Ufa were that advance “groundwork” was not done in both the cases.
CPI(M) MP Mohammed Salim said that if the two countries focus more on “event management” then they are bound to “meet such destiny”. (PTI)
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