KUALA LUMPUR, June 8: President Pervez Musharraf has described the threat of war with India as minimal but called for flexibility to break the deadlock over Kashmir, a report said on Saturday.

“I think the chance of war is minimal. I think leaders in both countries need to be sensible enough to work on the path of peace,” he told Malaysia’s New Straits Times in an interview in Islamabad.

“Nobody, no leader in Pakistan can put the Kashmir dispute on the sidelines. Every individual of Pakistan is concerned about Kashmir. We seek justice on Kashmir,” the general said.

“We are not demanding anything unjust and the world must understand. But the only way we can solve this problem is through flexibility from stated positions on both sides.”

The Himalayan territory of Kashmir, divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both, has already sparked two of the rivals’ three wars and is once again the focus of tension between the nuclear-armed countries.

The situation remained tense on Saturday as Pakistan shot down a pilotless Indian spy plane which had allegedly entered its airspace.

Musharraf also told the Malaysian newspaper that he was ready to hand over day-to-day running of the government to the new prime minister after a general election planned for October.

The army chief, who took power in a 1999 coup, dismissed suggestions that he was “interested in concentrating power within myself” but said there had to be unity in Pakistan’s leadership.

“Without that unity, you cannot run a government effectively. There can’t be two men sharing power, so the real power should be with the chief executive,” he said.

“That is what I am going to shed in October. There will be a PM and I will shed this function of running the government which is the real power. What I will retain is the president’s authority to make sure that the PM is governing well.

“I don’t call that power. To oversee is the only power that I will have.”

Gen Musharraf, who named himself president in June last year, won another five years as head of state in a referendum in May.

He has announced he will hold parliamentary elections over 7-11 October to restore democracy.

Referring to the Kashmir issue President Musharraf said Pakistan was not demanding anything unjust and the world must understand its position.

“We want right of self determination for the people of Kashmir struggling for their basic right since 1947,” he added.—AFP/PPI