12 August 2017•Update: 13 August 2017
By Meryem Goktas
ANKARA
India and Pakistan should work together to resolve the Kashmir issue, Pakistan’s former President Pervez Musharraf told TRT (Turkish Radio and Television) World media Friday.
Musharraf, who now lives in self-imposed exile abroad, said both countries need to, "listen to each other's point of views, accept other's point of views, accept other's point of views" and "need to have the courage to meet halfway in any dispute resolution.
"They say you never can clap with one hand. It needs two hands to clap. Both sides have to first of all have the sincerity to resolve the dispute," he said.
Musharraf stated that mediation between the two countries needs the right amount of sincerity and flexibility to be achieved.
He said Pakistan's army is for peace and it would not take an aggressive stance.
"Our overall military strategy is a defensive deterrence," he added.
He said Pakistan wants "to resolve dispute with sovereign equality and our honor and dignity" with India.
"We may be much smaller than India but we are the fifth largest country in the world in population and our military is also the six largest military in the world and we are a nuclear power," he added.
He said he has no plans to become prime minister but is considering an "advisory role" in the country's politics.
"I have a vision for Pakistan because of the political turmoil that exists within Pakistan, therefore, I believe, the only solution to Pakistan’s political crisis to create a third political force," he said.
