`Kashmir issue has to be settled by India, Pakistan`

New York: Pakistan has said the Kashmir issue with India has to be settled by the two countries even as it described the UN resolutions on the matter as an "important framework" for its settlement.

"When we talk about the bilateral dimension of this issue (Kashmir), of course it has to be settled by India and Pakistan and we do realise that the UN resolutions are an important framework for the settlement of this dispute," Pakistan`s Ambassador to the UN Masood Khan said here yesterday. He was briefing reporters on his country assuming the month-long presidency of the 15-nation UN Security Council. When asked if the Kashmir issue should be resolved bilaterally or under the auspices of the UN, Khan said, "It cannot be characterised in such stark terms. The (UN) resolutions are there. They are relevant and in the meantime the dialogue between India and Pakistan must continue." Pakistan has raked up the issue of Kashmir at the UN forum time and again but India has insisted that it is its internal matter. Last month, Pakistan Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf had said that his country seeks to resolve the Kashmir issue on the basis of United Nations resolutions and aspiration of the Kashmiri people. Khan cited the recent increased engagement between India and Pakistan on a host of issues, including trade and said top leadership of the two countries have met as the nations "moved towards engagement”. "While India and Pakistan engage each other on a whole range of issues, we have always been and we make all sorts of overtures to India and there is greater interaction between civil societies of the two countries.” "This is our effort, this is the aspiration of the people of Pakistan that longstanding issues particularly the issue of Jammu and Kashmir would be settled in accordance with the wishes of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and a solution which has the concurrence of both India and Pakistan." PTI