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Pakistani Leaders Back Musharraf-Vajpayee Talks
ISLAMABAD, May 26 (News Agencies) - Pakistani politicians Saturday backed peace talks between their nation's military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf, and Indian Premier Atal Behari Vajpayee, and urged the two leaders to focus on resolving the thorny issue of Kashmir.
Musharraf received Vajpayee's formal invitation on Friday to visit India with his wife Sabah and the foreign office said the general would accept.
"We have said we will respond in a positive spirit," foreign office spokesman Riaz Mohammad Khan told AFP.
He did not comment on media reports that Musharraf would answer the letter in the next 48 hours.
"We will announce when we send the reply," Khan said.
Vajpayee's letter follows a two-pronged Indian cabinet decision on Wednesday to resume peace talks with Pakistan and call off New Delhi's six-month-old so-called cessation of combat operations against groups seeking the right of self-determination in its zone of Kashmir.
The conflict there has claimed 35,000 lives since 1989.
Leaders of Pakistan's major political parties backed parleys between South Asia's rival neighbors, which are both armed with nuclear weapons, hoping the summit would settle the festering Kashmir dispute.
"We have always supported dialogue with all our neighbors, particularly with India, and Premier Vajpayee's invitation is a step in the right direction," deputy secretary general of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People Party (PPP), Raza Rabbani, said.
"We don't play politics on Kashmir and are ready to give him support."
He said Musharraf, who seized power in a military coup in October 1999 after ousting former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, should gain the nation's confidence on the issue before going to India.
Musharraf's key rival party, the Sharif-led Pakistan Muslim League (PML), also supported the India-Pakistan summit.
Sharif held a landmark summit with Vajpayee in February 1999 in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore.
"There is a national consensus on how to resolve the issue of Kashmir and we are ready to shun our political differences with Musharraf if he is going to resolve the long-standing dispute," PML acting president Javed Hashmi said.
He said the talks should focus on Kashmir and consultations with the Pakistan and Indian-based Kashmiri groups were necessary before the summit.
"Musharraf must proceed to New Delhi with the backing of all political parties and the entire nation," Hashmi told AFP by telephone.
Ghafoor Ahmed, deputy secretary general of the Jamaat-i-Islami party said: "Vajpayee must start with an open mind, considering Kashmir is a disputed territory."
"The entire world would be watching as it is one of the main unresolved issues for the last five decades," he said.
"India needs to stop atrocities against the people of Kashmir, keeping in mind that sincerity is a pre-requisite for any successful dialogue. The talks would be meaningless if blood continues to spill on the streets of Kashmir."
Kashmiri outfits have rejected the parleys, saying chances of a positive outcome are dim.
Musharraf has said Kashmir is the "root cause of tension" between India and Pakistan and all other issues are peripheral irritants.
Pakistan wants a solution in accordance with the wishes of the Kashmiri people while New Delhi says the state is part of the Indian union.
"This makes the situation rather ludicrous, what is there to talk about," columnist Ikram Sehgal said.
"There must be a dimensional change in the approach to our problems."
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