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London: Asif Ali Zardari, co-chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) that heads the country's ruling coalition, backs Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's suggestion of greater autonomy for Kashmir but has added a rider - a joint India-Pakistan panel should decide on the state's defence and foreign affairs.
"Pending a final settlement, we agree with the statement of your [Indian] prime minister supporting an autonomous Kashmir running much of its own affairs," he said while addressing the two-day Tehelka summit on India & Pakistan - Designing A New Future here on Friday night.
"A commission can be established between the two countries and the leaders of Kashmir themselves to work out what should be done in foreign and defence affairs," Zardari said.
The statements came on the day Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi was in India for talks on taking the India-Pakistan peace process forward.
Viable peace
Zardari said India and Pakistan "must make a viable peace" on Kashmir as this was "a solvable problem that must not take further lives". At the same time, he said the delay in resolving the Kashmir issues should not be an obstacle to work in other cooperative matters.
"One important way is through economic integration and trade, business cooperation, media exchanges, transportation links between our two countries, sports and entertainment events, and cooperation in IT and the peaceful uses of nuclear energy," Zardari said.
Noting that trade and other factors had made China the huge economic engine it had now become, he said: "That is the kind of future that awaits our people if we have the sincerity of purpose to reinvent our relations."
He said a start had been made with the bus service between Srinagar and Muzzafarabad and the train between New Delhi and Lahore.
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