*WASHINGTON: *Amid a political storm over US President Donald Trump’s claimfor mediation in the Kashmir issue, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan hasclaimed that New Delhi and Islamabad were once ”pretty close” toresolving the Kashmir issue, in phases, during the regime of then primeminister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and military ruler General Pervez Musharraf.
“They came pretty close on resolving the Kashmir issue – phased movement…referendum during the time of Vajpayee,” Pakistan PM Imran Khan said inresponse to a question during his appearance at the US Institute of Peace,a US-Congress funded think-tank.
Khan, however, refrained from elaborating on the solution, saying it is asensitive issue and insisted that Kashmir is the “bone of contention”between India and Pakistan.
Imran Khan said Pakistan’s “top priority is to build good relationshipswith our neighbours” apart from putting an end to corruption and buildingstrong institutions. “We must have stability in our region,” he said.
He said that after coming to power, he first tried to reach out to India.
“India is a country which we’ve had a turbulent relationship with.Unfortunately, because of one issue of Kashmir, whenever, we have tried,whenever relationship has started to move in the right direction withIndia, some incident happens and that’s all related to Kashmir, and we goback to square one,” he said.
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Imran Khan claimed that soon after assuming office, he reached out to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi and assured him that he will take two steps, ifIndia takes one step because the biggest problem India and Pakistan face ispoverty.
“The best way we can reduce poverty is that we start trading with eachother,” Imran Khan said.
During the session, the Pakistan PM deflected a question on Mumbai attackmastermind and Jamaat-ud Dawah chief Hafiz Saeed, who was recently arrestedfor the seventh time, and said it is in the interest of Pakistan that “wedo not allow any armed terrorist groups to operate” in our country.
The Pulwama attack, he claimed, was “an indigenous thing.”
Pakistan, he said, came in the picture, because a group (Jaish-e-Mohammad)based in his country and also in Kashmir claimed responsibility for theattack.
Imran Khan, who is on a three-day official visit to the US, met PresidentDonald Trump – the first face-to-face interaction between the two leaders -on Monday in the White House. He described the meeting as very successful,which has reset the bilateral relationship.
“I never asked for any (security) assistance (from the US). I asked forunderstanding nor assistance,” Imran Khan asserted.