From Jal Khambata
NEW DELHI: Canada is contemplating to raise the Kargil development before the United Nations Security Council as its mission in the United Nations is actively talking to other Security Council members to gauge their opinion.
The Canadian move will be good news for India as it wants the Security Council to consider the situation along the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir as a "limited war" situation and threat to peace in South Asia, warranting urgent withdrawal of the infiltrators from the Indian mountains.
Pakistan’s English daily The News reported on Wednesday quoting the UN diplomatic sources that "it will be limited to the current situation to defuse the tensions and help India to deal with the tough resistance by the occupiers of the posts on high mountains and unblock the supply route to the Indian troops."
The daily also quoted White Spokesman P J Crawly, when asked if the United States would support any such Canadian move, saying that the US would welcome any move to urge both countries for restrains and resume bilateral dialogue in the spirit of Lahore declaration.
US ENVOY: Speculation is also rife that the United States may make a major diplomatic initiative, since after President Bill Clinton talking to Pakistan Premier Nawaz Sharif Tuesday night, to dispatch its special envoy to talk to both sides for working out a possible war-averting plan.
India is averse to any third party intervention and hence the US is examining how to conduct its peace mission and whether to limit the envoy’s trip only to Pakistan as the United States’ clear-cut view is that Pakistan has been guilty of violating the ceacefire line of control, causing the tension.
"WAR NO GOOD FOR KASHMIR": Meanwhile, Pakistan’s reitred Air Marshal Nur Khan affirmed in Islamabad on Tuesday that a war on Kashmir would serve no good for the Kashmir cause. Talking to reporters, he said Pakistan’s political and military leadership would do well to avoid war and instead attend to internal threats like economic instability, lack of cohesion among provinces and political fragmentation.
Listing some of the reasons, which made him not talk in favour of an armed Indo-Pak conflict, Nur Khan raised a question whether Pakistan could mould a favourable world opinion. He saw it an immensely negative aspect if Islamabad was isolated diplomatically. According to him, it could become rather difficult for Pakistan to establish to the world that it was not interfering and the issue at the centre of crisis was solely the Kashmir dispute.
Another reason, which led him not to vote for war, Nur Khan said, was that there would be certain adverse long-term repercussions, which Pakistan could not afford to face. "Sustainability will certainly be difficult without outside help in the given scenario," he said.
Nur Khan was of the opinion that the level of consultations and decision making must be expanded and all those who mattered, no matter whether from the opposition parties or ruling clique, should be asked to give their opinion. He did not favour a joint decision, in the present circumstances, by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Army Chief General Pervez Musharraf. "We should rather benefit from collective wisdom," Nur Khan added.
Director-General ISPR, Brig Rashid, was quoted re-affirming in Karachi on Tuesday that "the posts that the Pak Army has established in mountainous areas in Kashmir on Line of Control will not be vacated." He asserted: "Pakistan is a peace-loving country. We do not want war with India. But if India imposes war we shall give a befitting reply." END.
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