Pakistan denies changing stand on Kashmir issue

Islamabad, Dec 6 (UNI) Pakistan today categorically denied a change in its position on the Jammu and Kashmir issue, saying that it aspires for acceptable negotiated solution to the problem.

''There is no change in Pakistan 's position on Kashmir,'' Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tasneem Aslam said in a statement here this evening.

The statement comes a day after President Pervez Musharraf reportedly expressed willingness to be flexible in pursuit of an acceptable negotiated settlement of the issue.

Pakistan has for long been calling for the settlement of the Kashmir issue in accordance with the UN resolutions and wishes of the Kashmiri people.

But with the commencement of composite dialogue in February 2004, Gen Musharraf often said the two countries should give up their rigid positions to facilitate an out-of-the-box solution.

In this connection, he also proposed a joint management and self-governance in the Kashmir region as possible options to promote a lasting solution.

The latest in the series of proposals by Gen Musharraf came during an interview to an Indian news channel NDTV when he reportedly expressed Pakistan's willingness to give up the old demand for a UN-sponsored plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir if his four-stage peace plan worked out well and talks with India made tangible progress.

''The President was arguing for flexibility on both sides for a negotiated settlement of the Kashmir issue," Ms Aslam said while describing headlines in the media as ''misleading''.

She said, essentially, what the President said was that Islamabad was ready to show flexibility provided New Delhi did the same.

''It is only through reciprocal flexibility that a negotiated settlement, acceptable to all sides, is possible,'' she stressed.

Denying any change in Pakistan's position on Kashmir, Ms Aslam said the President had only reiterated the well-known view that in step with India, his country was willing to be flexible in pursuit of an acceptable negotiated settlement.

She said in the NDTV interview, Gen Musharraf again referred to ideas that had been discussed in the past and which had found resonance and evoked keen interest among Kashmiris.

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