The conflict over the disputed territory of Kashmir is soluble only if a pragmatic, realistic and tangible strategy is established to help set the stage to put the Kashmir issue on the road to a just and durable settlement.

Since we are currently more concerned about setting the stage for settlement rather than the shape the settlement will take, we believe that is it both untimely and harmful to indulge in or encourage controversies about the most desirable solution to the dispute.

Any attempt to do so at this point of time amounts to playing into the hands of those who would prefer to maintain a status quo that is intolerable to the people of Kashmir and also a continuing threat to peace in South Asia. It also succumbs to the wishes of those who would like to give the impression that Kashmir is the most complex issue right now.

Complexity is in the eyes of the beholder. There is not a single international issue that is not complex. If there is interest in resolving the issue, then complexity becomes a motivating factor. If there is none, then complexity becomes an instrument of passivity and inaction.

We depreciate the raising of quasi-legal or pseudo-legal questions during the preparatory phase of the final settlement of the Kashmir dispute. It only serves to befog the issue and to convey the wrong impression that the dispute is too complicated to be resolved and that India and Pakistan hold equally inflexible positions. Such an impression does great injury to the cause. The United Nations is in a unique position to play a more activist and mediatory role in regard to Kashmir by initiating a peace process. This can take the shape of: