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Sharief links signing CTBT to resolution of Kashmir issue

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief has given a new twist to his country's stand on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. He now seeks to link Islamabad's signing of the pact with the Kashmir dispute.

Addressing a press conference in Washington yesterday, a day after meeting American President Bill Clinton in the White House, Sharief spelt out specific conditions to be met before his government agrees to sign and ratify the CTBT.

"Pakistan supports the CTBT, but we cannot sign the CTBT in an atmosphere of coercion and pressure," he said.

Then he listed the conditions: Sanctions [imposed after India and Pakistan conducted nuclear tests in May] must be removed, the issue of Kashmir must be meaningfully addressed, and all [economic and other] embargoes on Pakistan must be lifted."

According to observers, Sharief has thus, for the first time, brought in Kashmir as a bargaining point in his non-proliferation dialogue with the United States.

He blamed India's nuclear tests for Pakistan following suit.

He said Pakistan has offered a strategic restraint regime to India aimed at preventing a nuclear arms race and nuclear conflict in the subcontinent. "Our proposal envisages a risk reduction mechanism and the establishment of deterrence at a minimum level," he said.

The prime minister, who yesterday failed to persuade President Clinton to agree to mediate in the Kashmir dispute, said the international community has an obligation to demand full implementation of the United Nations Security Council resolutions which guaranteed the Kashmiris' right to self-determination.

"The resolutions of the Security Council are not time-bound nor open to selective implementation. They remain valid till they are implemented or abrogated through a subsequent resolution," he pointed out.

Sharief said, "India must give [the] right [to] self-determination to Kashmir and Pakistan will continue to support politically, diplomatically and morally, the people of Kashmir and their struggle."

He also hinted at the possibility of Pakistan helping the US to capture renegade Saudi Arabian millionaire Osama bin Laden, currently in Afghanistan, and bring him to trial for his alleged involvement in the recent bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

UNI

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