Kashmir a 'solvable problem': Zardari

Pakistan's ruling PPP chief has said the two countries should not allow slow progress on Kashmir to be an obstacle to work in other cooperative matters.

Describing as "solvable" the Kashmir issue with India, Pakistan's ruling PPP chief Asif Ali Zardari has said the two countries should not allow slow progress on it to be an obstacle to work in other cooperative matters.

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"We must make viable peace. This (Kashmir) is a solvable problem that must not take further lives," Zardari said in a 'special vision statement' read out at a conference organised by 'Tehelka' magazine in London on Friday.

Pending a final settlement, "we agree with the statement of your Prime Minister supporting an autonomous Kashmir running much of its own affairs," Zardari said.

"A Commission can be established between the two countries and the leaders of Kashmir themselves to work out what should be done in foreign and defence affairs," he said.

The PPP Chairman said that while working out the solution to Kashmir, "we should not allow slow progress on it to be an obstacle to work in other cooperative matters."

He said the PPP believed that Indo-Pak relations could and should be creatively rediscovered.

"It is a matter of great satisfaction that today our political opponents as well as the military establishment in Pakistan realise the importance of peace -- for making or breaking nations."