 "Nawaz Sharif")
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is expected to raise Kashmir issue during his address at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), a senior diplomat here said on Thursday.
The Pakistani diplomat said that Sharif is conscious of the importance of Kashmir and would raise the issue at the UNGA.
Last year, too, Sharif had brought up the issue at the UN, evoking a strong reaction from Prime Minister Narendra Modi who protested to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, saying raising bilateral issues on such fora was not the way to resolve them.
This year, the diplomat mentioned earlier said the Pakistan Prime Minister would offer several steps to de-escalate tensions between the two countries and establish peace along the Line of Control (LoC).
"The Prime Minister do not want to add to the existing tension but at the same time he is conscious of importance of Kashmir and Indian intervention in Pakistan," the diplomat said.
The official said that it had been decided that the speech should not deviate from the vision of the Prime Minister and should offer several steps to de-escalate the tension and establish peace along the LoC.
"Measures like frequent security exchanges and mechanism to tackle the outbreak of firing incident are expected to be proposed," he said.
He is also expected to talk about the threat posed by unresolved issue of Kashmir to regional peace as both India and Pakistan have nuclear weapons.
Pakistan is also expected to raise the issue of India's alleged intervention in its domestic affairs but modalities are still being worked out for it.
Sharif left for New York on Tuesday and is scheduled to address the General Assembly on September 30. No meeting between Sharif and his Indian counterpart has been planned so far, the Pakistan diplomat said.
Pakistan's National Security Advisor Sartaj Aziz has already made it clear that any proposal for the meeting should come from India.
