From Our
Correspondent
MIRPUR (AJK): Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan Monday said that as a matter of principle, talks with India should be held only under the UN auspices, and side by side with Pakistan and India, presence of the Kashmiris on the negotiations table is a must. He asserted that the UN supervision of the talks is essential in order to carry forward and implement the Security Council resolutions on Kashmir.
In an interview with a private TV channel on Monday he said that India had always used the bogey of bilateral talks to consolidate its illegal occupation of Kashmir and to keep the United Nations and the Kashmiris out of the negotiation process, and now it can once again use the talks as a ploy to divert attention from its recent illegal actions in IIOJK, AJK President office said on Monday
The AJK President maintained that since the Kashmir issue has been once again raised in the UN Security Council, the talks as a matter of principle should be held in not Islamabad or New Delhi, but in New York. However, to ensure participation of Kashmiris, these can also be conducted in Islamabad, New Delhi or Muzaffarabad and Srinagar.
In any case, we will have to ensure that the talks are held within the framework of the UN Security Council resolutions on Kashmir only, he asserted.
Responding to a question, he said that Pakistan’s stand on talks is very clear that Kashmir is not a bilateral dispute between Pakistan and India but it is an international issue which must be resolved by the UN Security Council.
However, India does not consider it even a bilateral issue and describes it as its internal matter. He said that India will also not accept Pakistan’s condition of involvement of Kashmiris in the talks process.
“Pakistan has always adopted the stand that the Kashmiri people themselves are to decide their future destiny as has been laid down in the UN resolution”, he said.
