Islamabad: The Interior Ministry's contention that Pakistan could learn from India's handling of insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir on Monday forced the Foreign Office to issue a statement that said Islamabad's position on the Kashmir issue had not changed. Responding to media reports regarding a statement submitted by the Interior Secretary in the Supreme Court, Foreign Office spokesman Moazzam Khan said, "There is no change in the official stance of the government of Pakistan about Jammu and Kashmir."
Pakistan regards Jammu and Kashmir as a "disputed territory and it remains committed to its peaceful resolution in accordance with UN resolutions and aspiration of the Kashmiri people," Khan said.
A statement on the situation in the restive Balochistan province, which was submitted by the Interior Ministry in the apex court on November 3, had stated that Pakistan could learn from India's experience in tackling insurgencies in Jammu and Kashmir and other states. "We should take a leaf from the Indian experience where in the states like Kashmir, East Punjab, Nagaland, Assam and Mizoram, armed insurgency and partial breakdown of government machinery took place for a number of years, (and) still democracy and successive elections afforded the people and the government a good chance to overcome their difficulties and defeat the militants with political process which was allowed to continue unhindered, undisturbed, compromised or violated," the report stated.
Several Kashmiri and right wing groups objected to the contents of the report. They also pointed out that the Interior Ministry had not stuck to Pakistan's usual description of Jammu and Kashmir as an "occupied" territory.
The Jammu and Kashmir Liberation League organised a protest against the Interior Ministry's report at Mirpur in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir yesterday and leaders of the group said the report had accepted India s position on the Kashmir issue.
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