Improve ties, but don't forget Kashmir: Pak PM

FRANK TALK: Pakistan PM Yousuf Raza Gillani speaking to Karan Thapar in his first ever interview to CNN-IBN.

        

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Karan Thapar: So the way forward is not to forget Kashmir, boost trade, improve confidence and improve trust, create an environment that will facilitate, and then, in that environment, sort out Kashmir.

Yousuf Raza Gillani: That would be a conducive environment. There will be confidence-building and we can come closer.

Karan Thapar: So on this issue – how you take the relationship forward via trade – create an environment and improve Kashmir – you and Asif Zardari are completely one.

Yousuf Raza Gillani: Certainly, yes.

Karan Thapar: Prime Minister, from the Indian perspective, the biggest irritant in India-Pakistan relations is the Indian belief that the terrorism that we experience is financed, planned and executed by groups like the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammad in Pakistan, with the connivance if not the outright assistance of the ISI. How do you respond to that concern?

Yousuf Raza Gillani: Now you’re coming back with the same question which I repeated earlier – the core issue of Kashmir. But I want to tell you that after the earthquake of 2005, lot of people came in for aid in our part of Kashmir and even the United Nations and other journalists, media. They all came in and they didn’t find anything like this where you’d see terrorism activities taking place.

Karan Thapar: So these concerns, you believe, are unfounded.

Yousuf Raza Gillani: Yes.

Karan Thapar: Completely?

Yousuf Raza Gillani: Completely.

Karan Thapar: The reason I bring it up is that in an interview to this programme in September, Benazir Bhutto gave India three critical assurances – first, she said, if she became Prime Minister, her government would ensure that any militant or terrorist training camps in NWFP – or what you call Azad Kashmir – would be shut down. Do you stand by that?

Yousuf Raza Gillani: Maybe she had that opinion at that time, but at the moment, I visited Kashmir and at the same time, the whole world is there for the reconstruction of Kashmir and there is no such camp.

Karan Thapar: So there are no camps in NWFP –

Yousuf Raza Gillani: No.

Karan Thapar: - No camps in Azad Kashmir?

Yousuf Raza Gillani: No. You were talking about Kashmir.

Karan Thapar: I was talking about camps in NWFP and Azad Kashmir

Yousuf Raza Gillani: Then you can ask me a separate question.

Karan Thapar: If there are militant-training camps there, will you shut them down?

Yousuf Raza Gillani: We are already working with the whole world against extremism and terrorism. Our point of view is extremely clear that we are against terrorism, we are against extremism. We have lost our own leader Benazir Bhutto because of that – how can I deny that? But at the same time, we are fighting against terrorism.

Karan Thapar: The second assurance that Benazir Bhutto gave me in September was that if the Indian Government were to ask for access to people like Masood Azhar and Hafiz Mohammed Syed, her government would seriously consider giving it. Today, you’re Prime Minister, she’s not. Would you have the same approach?

Yousuf Raza Gillani: If there are authentic proofs and if they want to share them with us, of course we can think on those lines.

Karan Thapar: So the onus of providing proofs is with the Indians.

Yousuf Raza Gillani: Exactly.

Karan Thapar: The third assurance that Benazir Bhutto gave us is that if India was to seek the extradition of Dawood Ibrahim – who even the Americans consider a terrorist – her government would not stand in the way. Will you stand by that commitment?

Yousuf Raza Gillani: Because I have not studied that, I’ll have to be briefed about that. At random, I can’t say anything.