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Back words with action : Defence Minister tells Pakistan |
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Reacting to frequent statements from Pakistan about a negotiated settlement of the Kashmir issue, Defence Minister A.K. Antony has asked Islamabad to back up words with action if the dispute over the state was to be resolved. Speaking to media persons on the sidelines of an international conference on Asian Security in New Delhi on February 10, he said, “Statements are not enough. Action is needed.” He was responding to remarks by Pakistan Ambassador Shahid Malik that a negotiated settlement of the Kashmir dispute was necessary to sustain the ongoing India-Pakistani peace process.
Flexibility from both sides could help resolve the Kashmir problem, Malik said during a media interaction at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in New Delhi.
Observers say that India and Pakistan have been exploring ways to advance a solution of the Kashmir issue in their back-channel talks. India has welcomed President Pervez Musharraf’s statement that Pakistan was ready to give up its demand for the independence of Kashmir, seeing in it a vindication of New Delhi’s position that soft borders could be a viable solution. Asked if there had been any progress on the contentious Siachen issue, Antony replied: “There has been some improvement on the boundaries. We are consciously making efforts to improve our relations with Pakistan and China.” Antony brushed aside the Pakistani envoy’s statement that India’s purchase of military hardware, primarily for the Army and the Air Force, would trigger an arms race in the region. Noting that India’s defence budget was “one of the lowest” in the region, Antony said: “We do not want an arms race in the neighbourhood or the world. We are procuring equipment not for confrontation but to maintain a minimum deterrent as per our declared programme,” the minister added.
Shariat Bill passed
In a move aimed at making personal laws governing Muslims in Jammu and Kashmir in line with those applicable in the rest of the country, the State Assembly has passed a Bill seeking to apply provisions of the Shariat to Muslims of the state.
The Bill seeks to replace an earlier code that had been in force since Maharaja Pratap Singh’s era which contained several local traditions. It now erases those provisions, seeking to bring Kashmiri Muslims under the ambit of Shariat-based laws that were penned with the Arab interpretation of how Muslims should run their lives and codes on weddings, divorce and sexuality.
The Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Bill was moved by leader of Opposition and former National Conference minister Abdul Rahim Rather and adopted unanimously. The Bill will now go to the upper House where it is likely to be taken up on February 14.
“This bill will create uniformity. The law is applicable in other states and will now be made valid in Jammu & Kashmir. The customary laws, which were applicable, used to create contradictions,” Rather said.
It erases anomalies with the Shariat on issues like property inheritance for daughters in Kashmiri villages. Under customary laws in the country’s only Muslim-majority state, daughters weren’t entitled to it, but the new Bill gives them inheritance rights.
Baglihar decision today
The World Bank-appointed neutral expert’s decision on construction of the Baglihar dam on the Chenab in J&K’s Doda district will be notified today (Feb. 12).
Professor Raymond Lafitte was appointed to adjudicate on the differences between India and Pakistan over the dam and his decision would be announced to representatives of the two governments at Bern in Switzerland.
The World Bank in a statement said both India and Pakistan have agreed to abide by the decision of Prof Lafitte. Prof Lafitte was appointed in May 2005 to look into the differences between India and Pakistan over the design of the Rs 4500 crore Baglihar dam.
Senior officials in the Ministry of Water Resources said that Pakistan had been getting “too much concessions” while India shared less than one-third of the waters from the western rivers of the Indus system of rivers namely the Indus, the Jhelum and the Chenab. Pakistan has exclusive use of the western rivers. As far as the three eastern rivers, Sutlej, Beas and Ravi, are concerned, the treaty gives India exclusive use of all of their waters and their tributaries before the point where the rivers enter Pakistan.
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