The Newshour Debate: Pakistan's Siachen rant after Kashmir rhetoric - Part 1 (1st Oct 2014)

In a debate moderated by TIMES NOW's Anand Narasimhan and Tina Sharma Tiwai -- Maj Gen (Retd) G D Bakshi, Editor, Indian Military Review; Sushant Sareen, Sr Fellow, Vivekananda International Foundation; G Parthasarathy, Former High Commissioner to Pakistan; Air Vice Marshall (Retd) Abid Rao, Defence Analyst; and Lt Col (Retd) Shafqat Saeed, Defence Analyst -- discuss the issue of Pakistan now raising Siachen issue after the Kashmir rant, and whether the country is desperately attempting to stay relevant.

Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam today (Oct 2) claimed that India never responded positively on Pakistan's proposals to resolve the Siachen issue and for declaring Siachen a Peace Park including demilitarization of the territory. Her remarks come within days of Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif raking up the Kashmir issue at the UN General Assembly where he said the UN had passed resolutions to hold a plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir more than six decades ago. Aslam made it clear that Indo-Pak talks were not asubstitute to the UN resolutions on Kashmir which envisage plebiscite in the region. "Kashmir is a legal issue also and its legal position demands that the dispute must be resolved as per the aspirations of Kashmiri people through plebiscite," she said. Aslam said that Simla Agreement between the two countries does not make UN resolutions ineffective.