In my last term, I made a mistake in holding the Kashmir issue as the single issue between India and Pakistan. It is not the single issue and now when I took at the future and think of what ought to be done in the future, I think it is very difficult for India and Pakistan to decide about land. It's a very emotive issue. But in this fight over land we have forgotten many things ... We have forgotten about the Kashmiris, we have also forge tten that Partition was meant to pave the way for peaceful co-existence ...not ... for a more bitter conflict ... I would like to see India and Pakistan and all of South Asia look back on the last 50  years and see what can be done differently in the next 50 years, so that we do not relive the mistakes of the past.

I would like to see India and Pakistan sit down and have negotiation for open borders at the start between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad. In the open borders, Pakistan would have to undertake to police it and India would have to undertake to withdraw its troops and to begin a dialogue with the All Party Hurriyat Conference who are the representatives of the Kashmiri people as far as we are concerned. But I think the opening of the borders would enable the people of Kashmir to travel back and forth freely, it would lead to a peaceful environment, the governments of Srinagar and Muzaffarabad could meet from time to time to discuss the obstacles and issues that need to be resolved ... these open borders should be part of a larger plan for open borders between all of South Asia. Not just between India and Pakistan, but the whole region ...

The formalisation of the Line of Control, some people think, is a very good idea, but it's an open question as to whether the Kashmiris could accept it, and if they don't accept it this could come up again and upset the applecart. So my view is that without prejudice to both country's positions, let's leave it for another generation. First let us start with open heart and open minds, let us deal with people, and if the minds open up and the hearts open up, and we become less obsessed with land, maybe another generation will be able to come back to this issue. And what will the next generation be like with information technology already dictating a new political landscape? Territorial boundaries had greater sanctity before (but) these concepts are going to undergo a transformation in the coming generation ...

... What (Sharif) has done is internationalise Pakistan a rogue nation. Not the Kashmiris. He's internationalised Pakistan as a bad partner to work with, as a deceitful nation. Kashmir was internationalised when George Bush mentioned it in his meeting with the Soviet President that it was on disputed agenda and had to.be resolved. It was internationalised when the UN Secretary General said it was the oldest areas of unresolved agenda in the UN. It's not Kashmir that has got internationalised now, it's Pakistan that has got internationalised in a very bad light, and that's a setback to the Kashmiris (Source: The Sunday, 1-7 August, 1999)