Kasuri rejects Qureshi’s remarks over Kashmir issue

ISLAMABAD - Former Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri has rejected his successor Shah Memhood Qureshi’s view on there being no progress on the Kashmir issue for several years.

Rejecting Qureshi’s remarks, Kasuri said remarkable progress was made over the issue during former President General Pervez Musharraf’s regime.

Kasuri claimed that India and Pakistan had almost reached an agreement over the long-pending Kashmir issue, following a series of back-channel talks between two sides.

“President Asif Ali Zardari, according to my knowledge, was aware of the details of the back-channel diplomacy and the Presidency has the related record of the details regarding talks on the Kashmir issue,” The Nation quoted Kasuri, as saying.

“It might be a total disconnection between the Presidency and the Foreign Office over the issue. How is this possible that a Foreign Minister of Pakistan is not in knowledge of this issue of much importance between India and Pakistan?” he added.

Khurshid claimed that the record of the proposal is still with the government.

It is worth mentioning here that Qureshi had sauid he was not aware of any back channel talks between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir issue.

Qureshi had said if there was any proposal, it might have been a secret between some individuals, but neither me nor the people of Pakistan know anything about it because there was no record at the Foreign Office.

It may be noted that Mohammad Sadiq, a former Foreign Office spokesman and currently Pakistan’s Ambassador to Afghanistan, had said that the secret proposal was still on the table. (ANI)