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Khan denies he quit due to Pak's policies on India, US

Gohar Ayub Khan has denied that his resignation as Pakistani foreign minister at the weekend was forced by differences with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief over policies on the United States and India.

In an interview to the Urdu service of the British Broadcasting Corporation last night, Khan said he would also not accept the suggestion that he had to go under pressure from the United States. ''There was no US pressure. The US pressure had ended long ago,'' he said, explaining that the US pressure ended with that country's stoppage of arms supplies to Pakistan.

However, Ayub gave a faint hint that the cabinet was divided over his frequent outbursts against India. ''We have to see India's attitude,'' he said. But he insisted there was no rift within the cabinet over India.

Khan's criticism of India and the United States had become very pronounced ever since Pakistan test-fired its Ghauri missile early last month. But, on the other hand, Sharief's statement has been reflective of his desire to have friendship with these two countries.

Khan -- son of the late Pakistan dictator General Ayub Khan -- told the BBC that he had not quit the cabinet. He wanted a change of portfolio because as foreign minister he had to travel abroad quite frequently and that kept him away from his constituency. So far the prime minister has not given him any other portfolio.

A former speaker of the lower house of parliament, Khan became foreign minister in February 1997, when Sharief's Pakistan Muslim League Party swept the elections.

Khan's vacating his office comes at a time when Islamabad is hosting an intra-Afghan round of talks and preparing for US President Bill Clinton's visit to the country later in the year.

UNI

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