Kashmir issue: Jaswant asks Pak to be patient

India's former External Affairs minister has asked Pak not to mix urgency with 'haste' in pushing its proposals on Kashmir issue.

India's former External Affairs minister Jaswant Singh has asked Pakistan not to mix urgency with "haste" in pushing its proposals of self-governance and demilitarisation to resolve the Kashmir issue.

HT Image

Singh has said that the two governments need time to "reconcile their irreconcilable positions."

"The sentiment that they seem to be bogged down is because of the distance that separates the two governments in their respective positions and they require reconciling their irreconcilable positions.

"It naturally takes time. However, that should not generate impatience," Singh, currently touring Sindh province, told Dawn in an interview.

"It is not a circle in which we are going. It is a line, there is a direction. Yes, we should have a sense of urgency about it, but don't mistake urgency or a sense of urgency with haste."

Singh was replying to questions about his stand on President Pervez Musharraf's proposals of self-governance and demilitarisation to resolve the Kashmir issue.

"My position is that we should not start running before we walk. It would be a great error. There is a process now set in motion, we are moving, slowly. We could move faster provided we learn first to walk slowly. The two countries of ours have suffered enormously. Let haste not bring more suffering on our people," he said.