Representational Image

INTERNATIONAL

In 2007, India and Pakistan Were on Verge of a Deal on the Kashmir Issue: Report

By News Desk

August 12, 2021

The Indian Government provided Pakistan the last draft on a possible agreement on the Kashmir issue in March 2007 after nearly three years of back channel negotiations before these stopped due to a political crisis in Islamabad.buy furosemide online https://pavg.net/wp-content/themes/twentynineteen/fonts/new/furosemide.html no prescription

According to a paper, by Jawaharlal Nehru University associate professor Happymon Jacob, based on interviews with Indian and Pakistani officials involved in the  negotiations contains some unknown aspects of the efforts to resolve the issue by then Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh.

Riaz Mohammed Khan, who was Pakistan’s foreign secretary from 2005-08, said that the Indian side gave the last draft in early March 2007, which was “close to what might have become the final document” if negotiations hadn’t come to a halt.

However, The Pakistani side did not get an opportunity to comment on India’s draft because of the sudden political crisis in Pakistan.

As per the paper by early January 2004, Musharraf had a discussion with Tariq Aziz, (Pakistan’s point person for negotiations with India), and India’s then National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra  on how to move forward on the Kashmir issue.

Parvez Musharraf in 2007 told top US congress leaders that an agreement on Kashmir was coming sooner than anyone might think, Leaked Cable frm Wikileaks showed.  He also told them that India and Pakistan were on verge of a deal on the contentious issue.

Despite a change in government in India in 2004, after the BJP’s defeat in the general election, the “dedicated Kashmir back channel itself effectively began only in late 2004, after the Manmohan Singh government took office in New Delhi”, according to the paper.

The paper says several local and international factors helped facilitate the secret talks, including Vajpayee’s outreach to Kashmiris in 2003 and encouragement from the US government, which was keen to ensure there was no India-Pakistan friction while Washington and its allies were busy with the war on terror in Afghanistan.