'No proposal to form Kashmir Committee in Par'

Shimla, June 2: There is no proposal to set up a Kashmir Committee in Parliament, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chaterjee said here today.

''At the moment, there is no proposal to form a Kashmir Committee,'' he said replying to questions after inaugurating a two-day conference 'Towards South Asian Unity', organised by the South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA).

Mr Chatterjee was asked by a Pakistani journalist if a Kashmir Committee could be formed in the Indian Parliament on the lines of such a panel set up in Pakistan in the wake of the Baroness Emma Nicholson's report on Kashmir in the European Parliament.

On India-Pakistan relations, the Speaker was happy that the normalisation process was moving in the right direction. The two countries were sincerely trying to iron out their differences on various issues between them, he said.

Addressing the conference, Leader of the Opposition in the Pakistan National Assembly Maulana Fazlur Rehman said it was essential for India and Pakistan to settle the Kashmir issue in the interest of good neighbourly relations.

He said countries in South Asia could progress fast but there was intense pressure on them from the Western powers on various issues.

In this connection, he spoke about how the United States was pressurising both India and Pakistan to abandon the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project.

He said Pakistan was also under pressure for sending troops to Iraq to assist the Western forces in restoring normalcy in the war-torn nation.

UNI

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