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No breakthrough likely in Colombo: Gohar

Pakistan Foreign Minister Gohar Ayub Khan believes no breakthrough is expected at the much awaited talks between the Indian and Pakistan prime ministers on July 29 in Colombo on the sidelines of the SAARC summit.

As India will stick to its stand that Kashmir is an integral part of its country during the meeting between Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Nawaz Sharief, Khan says, ''the situation will be back to square one.''

''For the last so many years, India and Pakistan have held talks so many times, but the result was nil,'' he said.

''Media reports would follow that the prime ministers have met and authorised their respective foreign secretaries to hold talks. But when the talks begin, the Indians will again say Kashmir is an integral part of India and the situation would be back to square one,'' Khan said in an interview.

''To avoid such a situation, we are urging the world community for mediation,'' he said and added, ''In the present circumstances and keeping in view the past 50 years' experience, this is the only way out,'' Khan, whose father Field Marshal Ayub Khan, was Pakistan's president in the late fifties and mid-sixties, said.

''India calls for talks under the Simla agreement which advocates bilateral talks, but there has been no progress since the days of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto,'' he said.

About the UN resolutions on Kashmir, Khan said, ''they are not time barred and Pakistan's stand on them is clear.''

UNI

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