Pakistan’s Kashmir obsession confines it to single-issue foreign policy: Salman Khurshid

Senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid has said Pakistan’s Jammu and Kashmir obsession has confined it to a single-issue foreign policy. This comes at a cost considerable cost to itself and to other countries of the region, he said. “Despite strenuous and perverse efforts of the enemy, the protracted conflict remains about Kashmiriyat rather than about Islam,” Khurshid notes in his new book ‘Visible Muslim Invisible Citizen - Understanding Islam in Indian Democracy’.

"In many ways, accommodation between the Indian state and the aspirations of the people of the Kashmir Valley might have been possible with some give and take, but for Pakistan believing that they have a role and indeed an expectation of a favourable outcome,” he writes.

Elaborating on Kashmir issue and Pakistan’s role, Khurshid said Islamabad cannot be given a veto on New Delhi’s historical aspirations and stretegic concerns.

“It is incumbent that we find peace with our fellow compatriots, no matter how disenchanted they feel. But it is our problem and Pakistan should accept not to interfere openly or in a clandestine manner,” Khurshid told news agency PTI.

Earlier in the day, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan for developing foreign relations arrived in the US on a three-day official trip. Along with foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, the prime minister was welcomed by a large number of Pakistani Americans. Khan is scheduled to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday during which the American leadership will press him to take “decisive and irreversible” actions against terrorist and militant groups operating from Pakistani soil and facilitate peace talks with the Taliban.

To cut his travel expenses, Khan arrived in the US abroad a commercial Qatar Airways flight and is staying at the official residence of the Pakistani Ambassador to the US, Asad Majeed Khan.

Khan is also scheduled to meet IMF acting chief David Lipton and World Bank President David Malpass.

He is scheduled to address a gathering of thousands of Pakistani Americans at capitol One Arena in downtown Washington DC on Sunday, July 21, and speak at the US Institute of Peace think-tank on July 23. This is after several decades that a visiting Pakistani leader has been welcomed by members of the Pakistani diaspora in such a large number.