Asserting that India and Pakistan have to step back from their "maximalist" approach on Kashmir, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said the leaders of the two countries should be "bold enough" to strike a decision on the issue as extremists are on both sides.
"On the Kashmir dispute, we are all on the maximalist approach. If we stick to that approach there will be no solution. Therefore, each one of us has to step back on the maximalist approach," Musharraf, who is on an official visit to Sweden, said in Stockholm.
"If we want to resolve disputes and Kashmir, first of all we need to be sincere about it and not have any strategy other than pure sincerity about the resolution of the disputes.
"Secondly, we have to be flexible from our maximalist positions and thirdly, we have to be bold because extremists
are on both sides of the divide. The leaders have to be bold enough to strike a decision," he said in an address at
the Stockholm Institute of Economics yesterday.
Expressing his happiness over the Indian government's decision to continue with the peace process, Musharraf said he
has spoken to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. "So let us hope for the best," he was quoted as saying by state-run PTV.
Maintaining that the Kashmir issue can't be ignored as it is a "fundamental issue" between the two countries,
Mushrarraf said the two countries currently follow a "two track" approach to resolve disputes and bring down
tensions by initiating confidence-building measures and continuing with the dialogue process.
"The dialogue process and CBMs, our view is that these two track have an inter-relationship. They must move in tandem. You cannot move forward on CBMs while you do not go forward on the dialogue process, addressing issues and disputes.
"That is not practicable, it is not realistic. It is not doable. Both the CBMs and all the elements of it and the dialogue process addressing all issues including Kashmir must move in tandem. We hope they do," he said.
Dwelling on the four-point approach proposed by him during the 2001 Agra summit, he said, "I do not think there
could be any fairer or sensible approach than this. That is what Pakistan desires and we will try our best to achieve
success".
The four-point approach included the two countries beginning talks to resolve disputes; accept the 'reality' of Kashmir which needs to be resolved; eliminate solutions that are not acceptable to India, Pakistan and the people of Kashmir; and to clinch a solution that is acceptable to all.
Describing India and Pakistan as two elephants in a fight, Musharraf said, "The leader of a small country once said when elephants fight the grass gets trampled. We are trampling the grass around us, unfortunately. We must not do that."
