ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Pakistan has said that it will not accept any pre-conditions set by India ahead of the national security advisors-level (NSA) talks in New Delhi, stressing that Sartaj Aziz’s meeting with Kashmiri leaders will take place as per the plan.
“Pakistan remains willing to attend the NSAs meeting without any pre-conditions,” the Foreign Office Spokesman Qazi Khalilullah said in a statement on Friday.
The statement came in response to an advice given by India to Pakistan, saying that Sartaj Aziz should not meet Kashmiri separatist leaders at this point of time as it will not be “appropriate”.
Qazi Khalilullah said that the Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad T.C.A. Raghavan has been conveyed that “it would not be possible for Pakistan to accept this advice.”
“Kashmir is a disputed territory as per the UN Security Council resolutions which remain unimplemented,” the spokesman said.
The spokesman said that Pakistani leadership has always interacted with the Hurriyat leadership during their visits to India. He said that Pakistan sees no reason to depart from this established past practice.
“The Hurriyat leaders are true representatives of the Kashmiri people of the Indian occupied Kashmir,” Qazi Khalilullah said.
“Pakistan regards them as genuine stakeholders in the efforts to find a lasting solution of the Kashmir Dispute.”
Qazi Khalilullah said that Pakistan has proposed and conveyed to India a comprehensive agenda reflecting the broad understanding reached between Prime Minister Nawaz and the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Russian City of Ufa on July 10 that all outstanding issues including Kashmir and other disputes as well as terrorism issues and other confidence building measures (CBMs) will be discussed between the two countries.
Moreover, the foreign office spokesman said that India’s insistence to introduce conditionalities and restrict the agenda for the dialogue, demonstrates a lack of seriousness on India’s part to meaningfully engage with Pakistan.
Earlier in the day, the Indian External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said in a couple of tweets that India has advised Pakistan that it would not be appropriate for Sartaz Aziz to meet with Hurriyat representatives in India
Vikas Swarup said that such a meeting would not be in keeping with the spirit and intent of the understanding reached at Ufa to jointly work to combat terrorism.
