NEW YORK: Pakistan hopes that whoever is elected as President of the United States in the November election would pay attention to peace and stability in South Asia, and help resolve the decades-old Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan, Ambassador Masood Khan has said.
“We have to work with whichever administration is chosen by the people of the United States,” Masood Khan, who relinquished his post as ambassador to the US on June 30, was quoted as saying in a Newsweek article on the expectation India and Pakistan have from the presidential rivals — the presumptive Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and the Republican candidate, former president Donald Trump — now campaigning hard for America’s top job.
Writing under the headline ‘India and Pakistan Prepare for Battle Between Harris and Trump’, Newsweek Correspondent Tom O’Connor pointed out that in 2020, Ms. Harris, as a US Senator, had weighed in on the fate of Kashmir, after India revoked its special status in 2019. She was then campaigning for Democratic presidential nomination.
“We have to remind Kashmiris that they are not alone in the world,” Ms. Harris said at the time. “We are keeping track of the situation. There is a need to intervene if the situation demands.”
“While Harris has largely refrained from opining on the Kashmir issue since assuming the vice presidency, her past remarks are widely remembered in Pakistan,” the article said.
It highlighted that Pakistan has campaigned extensively against New Delhi’s 2019 decision, viewing it as a unilateral violation of international law and a provocation in a dispute that has fueled past wars and still occasional border skirmishes between the two nations.
“We were reassured by some of the statements that were made about Kashmir in 2019, and I include those of Vice President Kamala Harris at that time,” Masood Khan said.
“There was a groundswell of support for the rights of Kashmiris.”
He added, “So, we hope that whichever administration is elected, whichever president and cabinet is put in place, they would pay attention to peace and stability in South Asia, because I think that the future of the world hinges on stability in South Asia for a number of reasons, ”
In this regard, Masood Khan called on the U.S. “to demonstrate statesmanship, statesmanship for mediation for other countries towards dialogue, resolution of disputes,” including the dispute over Kashmir.” –Agencies
