MUZAFFARABAD, Feb 5: President Gen Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday called upon the international community to play its role for a peaceful settlement of the Kashmir issue in view of “failure of bilateralism to deliver.”

Addressing a joint sitting of the AJK Legislative Assembly and the AJK Council, he said: “We call upon the international community, particularly the influential countries, to play an active role in resolving Kashmir dispute because this is essential for lasting peace and harmony in the region.”

The session was held to mark the Kashmir Solidarity Day which was observed throughout Pakistan and Kashmir.

The term of bilateralism, the president said, was brought into negotiations by India as a farce to avoid confronting the issue.

“Unless we move forward through interaction and mediation and facilitation by the international community, bilateralism will never work, it appears. Therefore, the international community should come forward in the interest of peace in the region and mediate and facilitate a solution of the longstanding dispute.”

In the same breath, the president asked Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to accept his offer of dialogue for the peaceful settlement of the festering Kashmir problem as well as all other issues.

“I also take the opportunity to call upon New Delhi to take steps to end repression in occupied Kashmir. They can make a beginning towards this end by withdrawing bulk of their forces from Kashmir, ending military operations against the Kashmiris and withdrawing draconian laws that give powers to occupation forces to act with impunity,” he said.

Referring to his Jan 12 speech, Gen Musharraf said the measures taken by him were not under any pressure but purely in the interest of Pakistan to convert it into a moderate and progressive Muslim welfare state in accordance with the vision of the Quaid-i-Azam.

He said his decisions had not only been welcomed in Pakistan but were also equally acclaimed by the international community.

The president, however, expressed disappointment over India’s cynical reaction and regretted that instead of responding positively to the hand of reconciliation extended by him, the Indian leadership had continued with its threatening noises.

“India persists with its massive deployment of troops and military assets along the borders which have brought both countries to a position of eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation. This is brinkmanship at its most dangerous.

“Let it be very clear to all those in India who talk of aggression against Pakistan that we shall guard our sovereignty, honour and dignity very jealously.

“If a war is imposed on Pakistan, we will defend every inch of our soil with all the means at our disposal and with the last drop of our blood. Let their be no underestimation of our resolve.”

Reminding the Indian leadership of its statements that if Pakistan would take one step they would take two, the president said: “We have taken the step and we are awaiting the steps to be taken by India.”

He said Indian leaders must realize that the only feasible option before the two countries was to settle their differences through peaceful means.

“In order to be durable, any settlement has to be based on the principles of justice and fair play.”

He said that Pakistan wanted to live in peace with all of its neighbouring countries, particularly India, but its yearning for peace must not be taken to mean that it would agree to compromise on the principles. “This will never happen.”

Going back to his Jan 12 speech, he said banning of the groups and other steps were also directed towards bringing tolerance and peace to as well as shunning militancy and extremism from society.

With the establishment of the writ of the government, he said, all external issues should be left to the state and the government.

“No organization or party has a right to follow its own agenda on any external affairs,” the president said, adding such affairs could be commented upon but any final action and dealing with those was the government’s job.

“Let the government deal with all issues; with India, Kashmir, Chechnya, Palestine and anything.”

Gen Musharraf appealed to the people of Pakistan to have trust in his government and in him, and assured that he would not let the nation down.

He paid tributes to Kashmiris for their dauntless struggle for freedom and said their sacrifices would not go in vain.

He reminded the world community of the pledge made to the Kashmiris regretting that it had not been honoured despite the passage of more than half a century.

The last thirteen years, he said, had particularly seen an intense and tragic phase in Kashmir struggle as the 700,000-strong Indian army had resorted to unprecedented suppression and human rights violation.

He said the objective of the Indian repression was to force the Kashmiris to abandon their demand for self-determination, but he was sure that “the 10 million people of held Kashmir cannot be denied freedom. Their right to decide their future has not lapsed with the passage of time.

‘‘The failure of the international community to ensure the implementation of the UN resolutions has not made them any less valid.”

He said India was engaged in a sinister propaganda campaign that the Kashmir freedom movement was sponsored from outside by Pakistan and that Pakistan was sponsoring a proxy war in occupied Kashmir.

India had left no stone unturned to portray it as Islamic fundamentalism and cross-border terrorism, as it wanted to hoodwink the international public opinion by playing with West’s apprehensions.

“If the Kashmir freedom struggle is sponsored and orchestrated from outside then who are those 80,000 martyrs buried in the graveyards of occupied Kashmir?”

He pointed out that no outside act, however powerful, could sustain a movement of such a scale and intensity for so long against the wishes of people.

The president said that the failure of the Indian military machine to crush the freedom struggle testified the strength and popularity of the indigenous character of the freedom struggle.

India wanted to impose a military solution on the basis of the status quo, consolidating its occupation in defiance of the UN charter and the Security Council resolutions.

“Such attempts elsewhere in the world have not succeeded. Departure from the UN principles and Security Council resolutions has prolonged conflicts and aggravated situation,” he said.

He reaffirmed the commitment of the people and the government of Pakistan to Kashmiris and said they would continue to extend full moral, political and diplomatic support to their just and noble cause.

GRANT: The president announced a grant of Rs30 million for the Kashmiris recently displaced from the border areas due to Indian shelling.