India, Pak were 'pretty close' to resolving Kashmir issue during Vajpayee regime: Imran Khan

India and Pakistan were "pretty close" to resolving the Kashmir issue, in phases, during the regime of then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Tuesday.

"They came pretty close on resolving the Kashmir issue - phased movement referendum during the time of Vajpayee," Khan said in response to a question during his appearance at the US Institute of Peace, a US-Congress funded think-tank.

He, however, refrained from elaborating on the solution, saying it's a sensitive issue. But he insisted that Kashmir is the "bone of contention" between India and Pakistan.

Khan said Pakistan's "top priority is to build good relationships with our neighbours" apart from putting an end to corruption and building strong institutions. "We must have stability in our region," he said.

He said that after coming to power, he first tried to reach out to India.

"India is a country which we've had turbulent relationship with. Unfortunately, because of one issue of Kashmir, whenever, we have tried, whenever relationship has started to move in the right direction with India, some incident happens and that's all related to Kashmir, and we go back to square one," he said.

Prime Minister Khan said that soon after assuming office, he reached out to his Indian counterpart and assured him that he will take two steps, if India takes one step, because the biggest problem India and Pakistan face is poverty.

"The best way we can reduce poverty is that we start trading with each other," Khan said.

Deflecting a question on Mumbai attack mastermind and Jamaat-ud Dawah chief Hafiz Saeed, who was recently arrested for the seventh time, Khan said it is in the interest of Pakistan that "we do not allow any armed militant groups to operate" in our country.

The Pulwama attack, he claimed, was "an indigenous thing."
"There is no concept of strategic depth (in Afghanistan) now," Khan said. "We believe that we should not interfere in the internal affairs of Afghanistan. This is the big difference now. We (the elected government and the army) are on the same page."