Archives

ISLAMABAD, Wednesday (Reuters) Pakistani Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali said it was time for Pakistan and India to exchange political rivalry for economic cooperation.

Jamali told a conference of donors and lenders in Islamabad that an ice-breaking phone conversation with his Indian counterpart Atal Behari Vajpayee last month had focused on the need to improve economic ties between the two nuclear rivals.

"You would be surprised," Jamali said. "When I talked to Indian Prime Minister Mr Vajpayee, his first emphasis was economics."

Jamali said he and Vajpayee, discussed how their economies could develop, but gave no details.

"Things have to change," he said. "How do you change? You don't change by fighting wars. We have had enough of wars, India and Pakistan...the political culture has to change into the economic culture."

Klaus Enders, head of the Middle East Department of the International Monetary Fund, told the conference a reduction in regional tension was a welcome step that could create "tremendous opportunities" for trade and investment.

Meanwhile Pakistan's foreign minister chided the U.N. Security Council for ignoring its 1948 resolution calling for a plebiscite in the disputed territory of Kashmir.

But Foreign Minister Mian Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri, who was chairing a Security Council meeting on peaceful means of settling conflict, said Pakistan still hoped to revive talks with India to find a peaceful solution to Kashmir.

Meanwhile a guerrilla leader said Muslim rebels fighting Indian rule in Kashmir will consider a truce only if India agrees to a list of demands including self-determination for Kashmiris.

"Look, when they accept the disputed status of Kashmir, reduce their troops, release the detainees, halt operations, then at that time if we have to lay down weapons, there is no harm in it," Syed Salahuddin, the Pakistan-based commander of the Hizbul Mujahedin guerrillas, told AFP in an interview in Muzaffarabad, the capital of the Pakistani-controlled zone of Kashmir.

"As a goodwill gesture, India should reduce the numerical strength of its troops in Kashmir to pre-1989 positions," Salahuddin said, referring to the year Muslim militants launched their insurgency.

www.crescat.com

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager