In a rejoinder to External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh's reported suggestion that Sino-India model should be followed to improve ties with Pakistan, Islamabad has said such an advice had 'logical fallacies' and asserted that all bilateral differences are central to Kashmir issue, which cannot be 'sidelined'.
"The Jammu and Kashmir dispute is not a border issue; it is not about empty spaces. It is about the aspirations and political future of the 13 million Kashmiris living in a territory that is roughly 85,000 square miles," Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan was quoted as saying by the official APP news agency.
He said the 'advisability' of modelling Indo-Pak engagement along the lines of Sino-India talks had 'logical fallacies'.
While Sino-India model may be good in its own right, it bore no comparisons to Indo-Pak differences over Kashmir, he said while reaffirming Pakistan's commitment to continue the dialogue process.
"The (Kashmir) issue cannot be sidelined. All India-Pakistan differences centre on Kashmir. A quest for the solution of this problem is the key to a genuine detente, a sustainable rapprochement, and a peaceful neighbourhood," Khan said. "The question is not of putting the Kashmir issue on the backburner or the front-burner, the object lesson is that it cannot be swept under the carpet."
"The challenge is to inject vision and statesmanship into the dialogue process, invest it with strong political will, and pursue it on the basis of reciprocity in order to break deadlock and find lasting solutions."
Khan was reacting to Singh's suggestion in a recent media interview that the approach adopted by India and China to improve their ties in all spheres while attempting to resolve the border dispute, should be applied to Indo-Pak relations.
On Singh's remarks that Simla Agreement constituted the basis for India-Pakistan relations, Khan said, "If invocation of the Simla Agreement was meant to maintain the status quo, then that is not suggesting a solution, but a way of perpetuating the problem."
He said the status quo is part of the problem. "It is not a solution. It is not a question of which instrument is to be invoked selectively by which party," he said and recalled that there were UN Security Council resolutions which, he claimed, gave a clear blueprint of a solution.
The real issue, he said, was to find a solution that was acceptable to all parties and a solution that could be implemented. At the same time, Khan reaffirmed Pakistan's commitment to the dialogue process with India and urged that this process must be sustained.
He recalled that in public statements as well as in their telephone conversations with President Pervez Musharraf, the new Indian leadership has given positive signals about continuity of the dialogue process.
In a telephonic talk, Premier Zafarullah Khan Jamali and his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh underscored the need for sustaining confidence-building and dialogue process, he said.