India and Pakistan were close to resolving outstanding Issue

New Delhi, Feb 19 (PTI) India and Pakistan were close to
working out the outline of a solution to Kashmir and reached
an understanding on disengagement in Siachen while discussing
demilitarisation on both sides of the Line of Control, says
former Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid M Kasuri.

Kasuri, who was spearheading the peace talks with India
under former President Pervez Musharraf, also said there was a
substantial understanding on a Joint Mechanism that would have
representatives from the two countries besides both sides of
divided Kashmir.

The agreements could not fructify because of "sheer bad
luck" and the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to
Islamabad not materialising, he told Karan Thapar on India
Tonight programme on CNBC TV18.

Kasuri said Pakistan had hoped Singh would visit the
country but in 2007 there were assembly elections in Uttar
Pradesh and other states. After that before he could be
invited, Pakistan was embroiled in a controversy over the
removal of Chief Justice Iftekhar Mohammad Chaudhari.

Kasuri replied in the affirmative on being asked whether
the two countries had come close to working out the outline of
a solution to Kashmir.

"Yes you see...We wanted Kashmiris to be involved and
India was not that keen, so we arrived at this modus vivendi
that your Kashmiris would travel to Pakistan, our Kashmiris
would travel here (India) and meet your leaders and your
Kashmiris meet our leaders in an indirect form. We would have
preferred a direct Kashmiri participation," he said.

Kasuri admitted that there was intense back channel
diplomacy during which representatives of the two sides met in
"different parts of the world".

Musharraf's close aide and National Security Adviser
Tariq Aziz first met his then Indian counterpart Brajesh
Mishra and later continued the efforts with J N Dixit and S K
Lambah.

Kasuri said both Prime Ministers Atal Bihari Vajpayee and
later Manmohan Singh "helped" the process.

He said both India and Pakistan were "working on similar
sort of things on both the sides" through the back channels
and almost agreed on four issues -- demilitarisation,
regionalisation, self-governance and joint mechanism.

"I can tell you, we even privately discussed when,
hopefully when the whole thing was done, neither side would
proclaim victory," he said.

He said had either side claimed victory it would have
been destructive for the "whole spirit of the agreement."

On demilitarisation, Kasuri said the principle was
understood that it would provide comfort to Kashmiris on both
the sides but the schedules had not been agreed upon.

The two sides discussed withdrawing troops from their
respective areas of Kashmir. Asked whether it meant complete
demilitarisation, Kasuri said, "propriety stops me from going
into such details." PTI SKU
SAK
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