Kashmir won't hold back Indo-Pak bilateral ties: Zardari

K-WORD AGAIN: Zardari says PPP has a clear policy about resolving the Kashmir issue.

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Islamabad: Pakistan People's Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, whose party is set to form the next government in Pakistan, on Thursday said differences on the Kashmir issue should not prevent his country and India from benefiting from 'trade and other bilateral cooperative relationships'.

Addressing a meeting of newly-elected PPP parliamentarians, Zardari said the party had a clear policy about resolving the long-standing Kashmir issue.

"There was no conflict between India and Pakistan seeking to improve trade and people-to-people contacts and at the same time holding on to their respective positions on Kashmir," he said.

"Differences on Kashmir should not prevent India and Pakistan from benefiting from increasing trade and other bilateral cooperative relationships," Zardari was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the PPP.

Zardari's remarks came a day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said India wanted to live in peace with Pakistan and hoped the new leadership in the country will work with India in putting the 'past behind' for 'enduring peace' and collective prosperity of the two countries.

Zardari had also said last week that he did not want India-Pakistan relations to be held hostage by the Kashmir issue.

The PPP has said it wants conflict management and the simultaneous creation of a trading bloc in South Asia to be part of efforts to settle outstanding issues with India, including Kashmir.

"It is PPP's vision that while not giving up unilaterally the UN resolutions (on Kashmir), we should also not let any single issue hold hostage the relations in the South Asian subcontinent," party spokesman Farhatullah Babar said.

Zardari's remarks on the Kashmir issue, however, have earned the ire of Kashmiri separatists in both countries as well as hardline Pakistani groups like the Jamaat-e-Islami.