Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf addresses world leaders in Davos, Switzerland

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf told business and political leaders in Davos, Switzerland that his government is committed to pursuing a bilateral resolution with India on the Kashmir issue.

Speaking at a panel session alongside Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Musharraf said there was "a bilateral need to resolve all problems between India and Pakistan. "In the last few months we got sidetracked," Musharraf said in reference to the turmoil over his declaration of a state of emergency and the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto in December. "We want to get it back on track," he said, saying he favours a "bilateral peace tract".

 

This marks a radical change in Pakistan's position on Kashmir and resolution of its decades long dispute with India. Islamabad has been all along calling for third-party mediation in Kashmir, appealing to the UN and the U.S. to put pressure on India, even as New Delhi rejected "outside intervention" in what it considered a bilateral issue. Musharraf's comments came a day after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, at a meeting on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, urged the Pakistani president to ensure that general elections were held on schedule next month and that they were free and fair."They talked about the current situation and the importance of the coming elections, and that they need to be free and fair," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said."Pakistani people need to have confidence in their elections," he said.

 

Davos is the latest stop for Musharraf, who has been touring European capitals aiming to reassure leaders that nuclear weapons in Pakistan are in safe hands. He also wants to revamp Pakistan's global image in the aftermath of the Bhutto killing, telling leaders and investors that his government remains committed to tackling extremism. "Please differentiate Pakistan from banana republics, where a lowly colonel can take over the estate. These things don't happen in Pakistan," he told the Wall Street Journal in an interview.Musharraf said his government would "carry on the fight against terrorism and extremism. It will have an impact even on the streets of Europe," he said.Despite their well-known differences over the causes of terrorism, Musharraf and Karzai put up a united front at Davos.When Indian diplomat Shashi Tharoor, a former UN undersecretary general, asked from the audience if Karzai would care to comment on whether terrorism in Afghanistan was being sponsored from across the border, the Afghan president replied diplomatically."I have just finished a very good trip with the president to Pakistan, so let's stop it there," Karzai said.

— IANS