PPP will not comprise with India on Kashmir issue: Pak Minister

Oslo (Norway), Aug.19 (ANI): Pakistan's Minister for Kashmir Affairs, Qamar Zaman Kaira, today said that neither his country nor the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party would compromise with India on the Kashmir issue.

Kaira, who is also Pakistan's Information and Broadcasting Minister, expressed these views in a meeting with Sardar Ali Shahnawaz Khan, advisor to chairman of Christian Democratic Party in Oslo, Norway.

Kaira said that Pakistan is ready for dialogue with India for a peaceful solution of the Kashmir issue, but added that Islamabad would only accept a solution that was acceptable to all Kashmiris.

Pakistan, he said, has not shied away from taking up the Kashmir issue at the diplomatic level. He said President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani had raised the Kashmir issue at all international forums.

According to the Dawn, he asked Shah Nawaz to urge New Delhi to start serious talk on Kashmir.

The Kashmir conflict refers to the territorial dispute over Kashmir, the northwesternmost region of the Indian subcontinent. The parties to the dispute are India, Pakistan, China and the people of Kashmir.

India claims the entire former Dogra princely state of Jammu and Kashmir and presently administers approximately 43 percent of the region including most of Jammu, Kashmir Valley, Ladakh and the Siachen Glacier. India's claim is contested by Pakistan which controls approximately 37 percent of Kashmir, mainly Azad Kashmir and the northern areas of Gilgit and Baltistan. In addition, China controls 20 percent of Kashmir including Aksai Chin which it occupied following the brief Sino-Indian War of 1962 and the Trans-Karakoram Tract, also known as the Shaksam Valley, that was ceded to it by Pakistan in 1963.

India's official position is that Kashmir is an "integral part" of India. Pakistan's official position is that Kashmir is a disputed territory whose final status must be determined by the people of Kashmir. Certain Kashmiri independence groups believe that Kashmir should be independent of both India and Pakistan.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars over Kashmir: in 1947, 1965, and 1999. India and China have clashed once, in 1962 over Aksai Chin as well as the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. India and Pakistan have also been involved in several skirmishes over Siachen Glacier.

The Kashmir dispute has been a part of UN deliberations since 1948. Pakistan has demanded that the dispute be resolved as per the UN resolutions of 1948 and 1949. India, however, maintains that the these resolutions are being wrongly interpreted by Islamabad. (ANI)