New Delhi: India and Pakistan were tantalisingly close to an agreement on Kashmir and other contentious issues between the two countries when President President Pervez Musharraf was in power.
In an interview, Musharraf, when asked if the two countries were close to an agreement that was path-breaking, said, “Yes, absolutely. On all three issues– Kashmir, Siachen and Sir Creek”.
“…I had told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and he had agreed, of course. It was his turn to come to Pakistan and we had decided that if he comes and there is no signature on at least one out of those three, if not all the three, it would be a total flop and that must never happen. So, we agreed that when he comes, there will be an agreement on at least one of those three,” Musharraf said.
Asked if that one was likely to be Sir Creek, he said, “Yes, Sir Creek was more possible, but we had made great progress on the other two also”.
“Siachen is very, very easy to be decided. It is only some basic semantics of what needs to be put in the text, as far as the present positions are concerned. I think we are just being too touchy about a minor issue and negating very major gains that we could achieve,” the former Pakistan President said.
Musharraf said that the Siachen issues had been worked out between the two countries and it was only the Indian Army which put its foot down.
’Sayeed should have been convicted’
Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has said that Mumbai terror attacks accused Hafiz Sayeed should have been convicted if evidence was against him.
“I am not privy to what exactly happened in the courts, appeals, rejection but if the evidence was against him then they should have proceeded against him, certainly. If there is evidence then one has to move against them. What the courts did and what the government did with the courts, I am not privy to that,” he told a private TV channel.
He said, “Full measures have to be taken and a crime like what happened in Mumbai was a terrorist attack and therefore Pakistan must cooperate”.
Denying that there was any official patronage given to people like Sayeed, he said, “I wouldn’t say official patronage would be given to them. There are elements who are sympathetic to that view…but that does not mean it is official”.
Musharraf said he would have cooperated in the investigations into the Mumbai terror attacks if he had been the President.
“Well certainly, we would have co-operated in the investigation, because we wouldn’t like Pakistan to be blamed for being an accomplice-– the government, or the army, or the ISI-– because that is what generally gets projected, that they were accomplices in whatever happened; we would have joined the investigation and brought whoever has done it to book”.
Asked if he would have given so positive as to give the message directly to Manmohan Singh over phone, he said, “Yes, indeed–certainly”.
–Agencies–