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Topic started by dost_mittar on May 9, 2008 10:21:53 am

Ties with India at their best, says Pak minister

May 09, 2008 18:22 IST

Pakistan does not want another war with India over Kashmir, Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar said while describing the current status of bilateral relations as the "best" the two countries ever had.

"We have a very nice relationship with India, the best relationship we have ever had. The confidence-building measures are working very well and I think the defence of Pakistan is much safer than five years (ago)," Mukhtar, senior leader of the Pakistan People's Party and one of Pakistan's leading industrialists, said.

Ruling out the possibility of a war on the Kashmir issue, the Pakistani minister said the two countries had shown flexibility in their traditional stand on the issue.

"I am sure that both the countries are showing flexibility from their traditional positions. We don't want to fight a war," Mukhtar told the Dawn news channel in an interview. He said the issue will be resolved only through the opening up of the borders and greater inter-mingling of Kashmiris from both sides.

"Today is the time for economic wars and we must prepare ourselves. There are other problems in Pakistan and India like food shortages, oil problem, electricity problem and these problems can't be solved if we are at war with each other."

Pakistan, he said, was "trying to help India" in the economic field. "We are saying that we would like to buy gas from Iran and that the pipeline will go to India, which is a big market. They will benefit and we will also benefit," the minister said.

"We are looking at these kind of measures. We are giving them assurances that once you get the gas through the pipeline, nobody would ever stop it. And if we are assuring them, it means that we have no intentions of going to war," the minister said, adding that India and Pakistan need "to have confidence in each other."

"And that confidence people will only develop once they start opening up and doing business with each other. This will take time, it will not be done overnight. The situation is not what it was five years ago or 10 years ago, it is much better," he pointed out.

"More and more people are crossing through the Wagah border, parliamentarians can go without any visas and business is being done. We recently imported 1.5 million bales (of cotton) worth a billion dollars from India and these are the measures which bring the two countries together. One day finally, we may not be in a state of war."

Replying to a question on resolving the Kashmir issue, he said: "This issue will be resolved only once you have a lot of people communicating with each other." Mukhtar said more border points and travel routes like the Jammu-Sialkot road should be opened up.

The Kashmir issue would be settled once Kashmiris from both sides start meeting each other, "inter-mingling and having marriages," Mukhtar said. "Once they open up the borders for them, I am sure that this issue will come to a very, very low point and would never be a flashpoint," the minister said.

Asked if Pakistan needed to keep defence expenditure high if its ties with India were improving, Mukhtar said the country would "have to bring our armed forces to that capability level where nobody could, either on the conventional or nuclear side, bother us."

The military is "strong enough to defend the borders" and "we hope that the nuclear side is never used," he said. "I wish and pray that we don't have to fight even a conventional war," Mukhtar added.

"Our neighbours know they can't just bulldoze us and we know that we can't bulldoze them. This realisation is (leading) to a very nice relationship with each other," he added

Mukhtar also said Pakistan was not facing any major security challenges "except for the problems we are having on the border with Afghanistan, where the other party is complaining that people are crossing over. The CBMs with Afghanistan are not all that strong."

The defence minister also dismissed concerns about the safety of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, which he said is in "the safest of hands".

A committee of political leaders, including the prime minister and the president is overlooking the management of the nuclear weapons and the "world should not fear", he said.


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Post by sadna on May 9, 2008 11:56:36 am

Cobra
India may not have many real options, but keeping quiet about jihadis should not be one of them. I mean official Pakistan never ceases to complain about anything and everything including Indian missile tests, Jinnah's property in Mumbai, Hindi movie plots.

People should read Jinnah sometime. Even when he was asking for something really outrageous(like equality in govt for Muslim League with Congress in provinces where Muslim percentage was less than 10% even), he would be complaining about not getting it


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Post by arjun_5 on May 9, 2008 11:41:37 am


Pakistan does not want another war with India over Kashmir, Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar said while describing the current status of bilateral relations as the "best" the two countries ever had.


Let me translate for inbred retard pakis

Kashmir banega pakistan....NOT...

salim/selim..back to your stalking/paranoia...


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Post by Salim_Chauhan on May 9, 2008 11:29:37 am

{"Post by Cobra on May 9, 2008 11:17:48 am
Sadna, we can go mossad on them but that needs guts."}

Cobray,
Israel's hold on Palestinians is not any more effective than the Injun's hold on the Kashmiris. Eventually, both captive peoples will be free. (T)

Nobody thought the Kosovars would ever be free of Serbia. :(W)


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Post by Cobra on May 9, 2008 11:17:48 am

Sadna, we can go mossad on them but that needs guts. 8-|


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Post by Cobra on May 9, 2008 11:17:00 am

My view has nothing to do with Pakistan. Kashmir is a Muslim majority state and as such does not want to associate itself with rest of India. No matter of pampering would deter them from dissuade them from that.


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Post by sadna on May 9, 2008 11:10:55 am

:But I believe that Indians should either put up or shut up. They can't depend upon outsiders, the US or anyone else to defend their interests."

Do you mean that India has only two alternatives
1. India should attack the jihadi camps or
2. India should mouth Paki propaganda about peace and pretend the jihadis don't exist.

Sorry I don't agree. I will complain about jihadis as much and as long as I want, and the Indian media and govt should too.


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Post by HP on May 9, 2008 11:08:14 am

Mere words conciliatory or belligerent, can't solve the Kashmir Problem. Now it is not the right thing to say but Kashmiris ought to share some blame for their plight too.

In 1947 the Majority Party of Kashmir decided to go with India and Kashmiris changed minds way after that. Shaikh Abudullah was kept in jail but when he came out he still had strong support in Kashmir and became the PM.

Indians failed to capitalize on the favorable political conditions before the 70s. Now blaming Pakistan is just a way to cover up their own failure to keep the Kashmiris on their side.

Pakistan uses Kashmir for its internal consumption. Indians do exactly the same thing. Both deal with internal issues and blame each other for the Kashmir Problem.

Indians just take it out on Kashmiris...


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Post by Salim_Chauhan on May 9, 2008 11:05:11 am

{"It is stupid idea to keep holding a piece of land that draining country resources any way. Why not hold the plebiscite and decide the matter once and for all? Why should our soldiers have to die to defend someone who doesn't need defense from us? What kind of false pride is it?"}

Cobra,
You know, my friend, we have similar viewpoints. I agree that the eventual masters of any land are the local people who live there. I can harp all I want about FATA and Swat, but the bottom line is that those people decide their own fate, eventually. If they want to be a part of Pakistan, which they willingly did, it was fine. If Mushy starts bombing them and killing them and they decide to walk from Pakistan - that is their right. Similarly, why should Tamil and Bengali Indians keep dying to keep an occupied people in line? Ignoring our respective jingoistic emotions, when it comes down to brass tacks, we are saying the same things. I am not much of a super nationalist. :(W)


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Post by Cobra on May 9, 2008 11:04:40 am

The only problem is we will set wrong precedent. Khalistanis, Assamis and other groups will get a wrong lessen from it. Plebiscite has people's mandate and hence has more legitimacy.


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Post by Cobra on May 9, 2008 11:02:21 am

Well I see your point. Agreed.


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Post by dost_mittar on May 9, 2008 10:58:52 am

cobra:

I would rather give Kashmir to Pakistan than have a referendum there; the risks of unpredictable consequences for Indian Muslims of losing the referendum in Kashmir are too high,in my opinion.


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Post by Cobra on May 9, 2008 10:56:32 am

If not go all mossad on them if you have guts. Yaar, we couldn't tackle a handful terrorists in Kabul who kidnapped our plain right in front of our eyes. I would focus on such mishaps don't happen in future. Rather than maintaining status quo with Pakistan.


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Post by dost_mittar on May 9, 2008 10:55:55 am

Salim:

My position on Kashmir is well known and quite different from the official Indian position. But I believe that Indians should either put up or shut up. They can't depend upon outsiders, the US or anyone else to defend their interests.
If they are so afraid of Pakistan's nukes, they might as well lift their dhotis and let Pakistanis do whatever they want.

In my opinion, Pakistan will use nukes only if its own integrity is threatened, not to protect terrorist training camps that it doesn't even admit to having.


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Post by Cobra on May 9, 2008 10:52:38 am

It's much easier to give Kashmir valley to Muslims and seal the border.


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Post by Cobra on May 9, 2008 10:50:56 am

It is stupid idea to keep holding a piece of land that draining country resources any way. Why not hold the plebiscite and decide the matter once and for all? Why should our soldiers have to die to defend someone who doesn't need defense from us? What kind of false pride is it?


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Post by Salim_Chauhan on May 9, 2008 10:48:14 am

{"I would support any Indian govt. which shows the balls to attack terrorist training camps in POK or elsewhere."}

DM Sahib,
Talk is cheap and unless you find another group of willing Mukti Bahini traitors, such actions will be doomed to failure. Considering the rapid development of nuclear weapons and credible delivery mechanisms, even a million Mukti Bahinis couldn't repeat the fiasco of '71. (T)

The days of punishing Pakistan with violence have ended forever. :(W) A. Q. Khan Zindabad. (T)


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