Don't derail ties with India, says Pakistani daily

Pakistan was on Monday urged by a leading newspaper not to sour its "already precarious relationship" with India by making controversial statements on Kashmir.

"As far as Pakistan is concerned, politicking of the current circumstances (in Jammu and Kashmir) by its mainstream politicians will only undermine its own stance," the Daily Times said in an editorial.

It said that raising slogans "that sour Pakistan's already precarious relationship with its neighbour (India) is not a solution that could work in either short or long run".

The warning came days after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif declared he was waiting for the day when Jammu and Kashmir, where violent protests following the killing of a militant commander on July 8 has left over 45 people dead, would become a part of Pakistan.

The daily said the Pakistani military establishment had been previously accused, especially during the 1990s, of engineering separatist movements in Jammu and Kashmir.

"Pakistan should also refrain from giving the impression that it supports any kind of armed struggle in Kashmir as no issue on regional or international level has ever truly been resolved through warfare.

"There is simply one solution to this festering problem ... a political settlement acceptable to all parties."

For that, Pakistan and India must put aside their hardline stances aside and figure out a long-term solution to the Kashmir dispute, it said.

--IANS

mr/py