New Delhi
23 April 2007
India and Pakistan must resolve the Kashmir issue and all other
disputes to prevent external forces from exploiting the situation to further their interests,
Maulana Fazlur Rahman said.
"Some international forces are trying to control this region. Their eyes are on Arab's oil,
Asia's trade routes and the entire region. We (India and Pakistan) have to fight them
(forces) together and for that we must settle our all disputes including Kashmir. We
expect India to play a significant role in resisting these powers," he told the Fida-e-Millat
seminar held in New Delhi in memory of the late Maulana Syed Asad Madani. The
seminar will conclude on Tuesday.
Maulana Fazlur Rahman is the secretary general of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal and leader
of Opposition in the National Assembly of Pakistan. The MMA is a grouping of Islamist
parties that enjoys a majority in Balochistan and North West Frontier Province. He is
also the president of Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam-Fazlur Rahman rpt president of Jamiat-i-
Ulema-i-Islam-Fazlur Rahman. He is visiting India.
In an oblique reference to the United States and its Western allies, the Maulana said that
New Delhi and Islamabad should resolve their disputes, including Kashmir, and forge
unity to keep outside powers away from the region.
Referring to the proposed Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline, he said that Islamabad would
face pressure if it refuses to create any hurdle in implementation of the project. Pakistan,
he said, was facing pressure because it refuses to send its forces to Iraq and allowed
China to invest in Gwadar port project.
"We are facing pressure from international powers," he said, adding these were not a
country's problem but that of the region which both the countries should face together.
He said that China and Iran also should join India and Pakistan in helping resolve crises
in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine, failing which these will lead to trouble for the entire
region. When asked to comment on attempts by clerics of Lal mosque in Islamabad to
impose harldline rules, he said fundamentalists are everywhere but people's mandate
decides everything.
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