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Musharraf To
Go To India With Small Delegation
ISLAMABAD, July 9 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - President Pervez Musharraf will visit India with a small delegation comprising only of his foreign minister and senior government officials, information secretary Anwar Mahmood said Monday.
Mahmood said Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar, Foreign Secretary Inam-ul Haq, senior officials concerned with Pakistan-India relations and Musharraf's personal staff would accompany the president.
Musharraf is to leave for New Delhi on Saturday for a landmark summit with Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.
The president will not be accompanied by many ministers, Mahmood said, denying press reports that he would lead a big entourage for Sunday's summit in the Taj Mahal city of Agra.
Officials have not yet given details of the itinerary of Musharraf's July 14-16 visit to India.
The foreign office has said that Musharraf and Vajpayee would be joined by their delegations following their one-on-one meeting in Agra on Sunday.
Pakistani officials say there is no agenda, but the summit should focus on the Kashmir dispute that has caused two of the three wars between the South Asian neighbors.
"Kashmir is the root cause of tension between Pakistan and India. The issue has to be meaningfully addressed," foreign office spokesman Riaz Mohammad Khan said last week.
The scenic Himalayan state divided between India and Pakistan is claimed by both nations. Some 35,000 people have died in the 12-year insurgency in the Indian zone.
India considers Kashmir an integral part of its territory, while Pakistan calls for a plebiscite so that the people in the Muslim-majority state can choose between India and Pakistan.
The Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi has invited leaders of Kashmir's main separatist organization, the All Party Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference (APHC), to a reception it is hosting for Musharraf on Saturday, the government's military spokesman Major General Rashid Qureshi said.
"We are of the opinion that there is no harm in it and that it is important to meet them," Qureshi added.
Pakistan, regarding Hurriyat as the "true representatives" of the Kashmiri people, has said consultations with its leaders were "necessary" for a settlement of the Kashmir dispute.
State television said Hurriyat Chairman Abdul Gani Bhat and former chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq have confirmed they have received the invitation.
But, India opposed Musharraf's meeting with leaders of the APHC, who have been waging a 12-year old separatist campaign in the Indian zone of Kashmir.
Vajpayee has emphasized that Kashmir should not be the only topic discussed at the summit, according to a CNN report.
He said that he also wants to focus on trade and nuclear confidence building, the CNN online service said. On Monday, India formally proposed to Pakistan to start an official dialogue on the nuclear issue, official sources here said.
The proposal anticipates the possibility of the signing of a confidence-building measure on the nuclear issue to avert the threat of nuclear accidents.
Meanwhile, in the latest of a thread of goodwill gestures between the two countries ahead of the summit, India announced Monday that it would issue visas to Pakistanis at check posts along the international border and the Line of Control in disputed Kashmir, a foreign office spokeswoman said.
Aimed at making travel between India and Pakistan "as simple as possible", the proposal will see the opening of several land routes along the high-security region for Pakistanis to enter India.
"This is a unilateral announcement aimed at creating a conducive environment for a productive dialogue," spokeswoman Nirupama Rao said of the proposal that could be implemented within three months.
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