AMBASSADOR ASHRAF JEHANGIR QAZI LETTER TO FINANCIAL TIMES.

Sir, in your editorial “India-Pakistan thaw” of December 4, you state that “confrontation has suited leaders of both sides” and “nothing indicates they are ready to tackle the core issue of Kashmir.” Pakistan’s stand has always been in support of the acknowledged but trampled rights of the Kashmiri people. It sought a meaningful dialogue on what you rightly call “the core issue of Kashmir” instead of the “coercive diplomacy” India chooses to pursue after 9/11. President Musharraf has advocated a step by step win-win settlement of the Kashmir dispute – a process that could indeed open up the prospect for a real rapprochement. Even if the Agra Declaration did not see the light of day it might yet provide a useful basis for a resumed dialogue and peace process. The international community needs to do more than just note a reduction in cross border tension and an opportunity for India-Pakistan relations in recent developments. It needs to see its own stake in encouraging the resumption of a genuinely result-oriented dialogue on all issues, particularly Kashmir, between the two nuclear weapons countries. This would not only facilitate the war against injustice and extremism; it would open up the prospect for South Asia to realize its enormous potential.

Ambassador Ashraf Jehangir Qazi

Washington DC

December 15, 2003