International community is deaf, dumb and cruel on Kashmir issue : Khurshid Kasuri

Lahore : Former Foreign Minister of Pakistan Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri has said international community is deaf, dumb and cruel and we must not pin high hopes on international community since it resolves only those issues in which it is interested. However, he said, we should keep appealing international community and make effective diplomatic efforts for resolution of Kashmir issue.

He was addressing a seminar on “Pakistan-India Relations and the Kashmir Dispute” organized by Punjab University.

Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri was of the view that Indian media is obsessed with enmity of Pakistan and between two countries, nine war or near-war situations have erupted historically. He said that Pakistan could not ignore Kashmir at any cost because of social, cultural affinities.

He further said that Pakistan did not change its principled stance on Kashmir. He said that Kashmiris did not want to be part of India and without the resolution of this dispute; peace and friendship would not be possible.

He also suggested that institutional decision making would help the government build consensus at the national level and present Pakistani and Kashmiris case at the international level on equal footing. He rejected that notion of Pakistan’s isolation at international level referring to stance of Russia and China on Uri attack.

He said that after nuclearization of South Asia, war is not a viable option to resolve the problem, so both India and Pakistan should use proactive diplomacy, carve out a framework to provide an acceptable resolution.