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'Pak. was never in favour of war'

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD June 18. Pakistan today reacted cautiously to the statement of the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, that Islamabad was ``preparing for a fourth defeat against India''.

The Pakistan Information and Broadcasting Minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, said Islamabad was never in favour of war. ``It has always welcomed the practical measures taken for peace and order in the region and elsewhere in the world,'' Mr. Rashid, said.

He was reacting to the observations made by Mr. Vajpayee at a rally in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday in the context of the recent remarks made by the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, on the Kargil war and on the possibility of a recurrence of such events if India and Pakistan failed to arrive at a settlement on Kashmir.

Mr. Rashid reiterated that Pakistan wanted to have peaceful discussions on all issues, including Kashmir that was the ``core of Pakistan's foreign policy'' towards India.

He also denied that there was any infiltration across the Line of Control (LoC) from the Pakistani side and said a ``freedom movement'' for Kashmir was initiated long ago by the Kashmiris themselves. His remarks on the LoC was in the context of the statement by the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, that there was no let-up in infiltration across the LoC.

Mr. Rashid expressed the hope that the Kashmir and Palestine issues would be resolved in the near future. He claimed that the recent peace initiative between India and Pakistan offered hope for an early settlement of the Kashmir issue.

However, he alleged that Indians wanted to ``slow down'' progress on the Kashmir issue. On the recent remarks of Gen. Musharraf about the need for Pakistan to review its Israel policy, the Minister maintained that the President had not talked about recognition of Israel.

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