On his trip to Lahore in 1999, the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had offered Pakistan a solution to the long-standing Kashmir dispute — that Pakistan should extend its sovereignty over Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and let the Indians do the same on their side, said J&K’s former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah.
In an exclusive interview with The Hindu , Mr. Abdullah said that in 2001, the Pakistani government turned down Mr. Vajpayee’s offer, but the current one led by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is willing to accept it. “Today, they [Pakistanis] are ready to accept that [Mr. Vajpayee’s offer] with one provision — that there should be autonomy here and they [Pakistani government] will do the same there.”
Mr. Abdullah said that he had spoken to Pakistan’s “top people,” who, according to him, have reconciled with accepting India’s control over one half of Kashmir while Pakistan has the other half.
On the 2001 Agra Summit, Mr. Abdullah said nobody is talking about what was decided at the Agra Summit or why it broke up. “The only thing we know from Musharraf at that time and [Khurshid] Kasuri is that they had nearly settled the situation.”
