Pakistan Foreign Ministry says India inflexible on Siachen

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Tasnim Aslam, on Thursday said India had never responded positively on proposals regarding the demilitarization of the Siachen Glacier.

Addressing a weekly briefing in Islamabad, Aslam said a proposal to demilitarize Siachen and declare it as a Peace Park had cropped up during bilateral discussions in the past, but Indian policy towards resolution of this issue always remained inflexible.

"The demilitarization of Siachen has been under discussion in the past as well, and making Siachen a Peace Park. The problem came when India was not willing to withdraw troops without authentication of the actual position that they hold, which legally was not possible. So that's where this stopped," she said.

She said the proposal had been made with the aim of finding a peaceful solution to the conflict region in order to help the regeneration of ecosystems affected by the conflict.

But India's inflexible attitude had put an end to all hopes of finding a solution.

Siachen is in the northern part of the Himalayan region of Kashmir. The no-man's-land is 20,000 feet above sea level.

Between 10,000 and 20,000 Indian and Pakistani troops are stationed in the mountains above the glacier.

Military experts say the inhospitable climate and avalanche-prone terrain have claimed more lives than gunfire.

The idea of Trans-boundary Peace Parks was developed in the 1923 with creation of the Waterton Glacier International Peace Park between Canada and United State. Since then 169 parks have been developed in 113 different countries.

Peace Parks have been introduced on the borders of India-Bhutan, India-Nepal as well as Pakistan-China and China-Nepal, and such a solution seemed to be perfect to offset the impact of militarization of Siachen glacier on the climate of the region.

Numerous negotiations between India and Pakistan held between 1986 and 1998 brought some hope for such solution. However, as the political situation changed, the solution to issues affecting the Siachen Glacier ecosystem seemed to vanish.

Aslam said, sooner or later, Pakistan and India will have to resume the composite dialogues for the sake of sustainable peace in the region.

Therefore, it was legally and politically incorrect to pronounce that bilateral negotiations between Pakistan and India on Kashmir would undermine UN Security Council's resolutions on the Kashmir dispute.

"Supposing, Pakistan and India agree bilaterally on taking along the aspirations and wishes of the Kashmiri people on a solution. That solution would have to go to the UN Security Council to be authenticated and to supersede the Resolutions that are already there," Aslam said.

She said actual legal position on Kashmir is that the dispute must be resolved as per the aspirations of Kashmiri people through plebiscite.

"So any misunderstanding that discussing the Jammu and Kashmir dispute bilaterally between Pakistan and India somehow undermines the UN Security Council Resolutions, or that Pakistan and India should not - at least even for the UN Security Council Resolutions: if Pakistan and India are talking and Pakistan is taking along the views of the Kashmiris, hence the regular consultations with them, then it in no way violates the UN Security Council Resolutions, or goes against that," she said.