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Musharraf says he can't
abandon Kashmir issue

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on Friday said his countrymen would throw him out of power if he abandoned the Kashmir issue.

"No leader, no government of Pakistan can leave or abandon the issue of Kashmir. Any effort to sideline this issue will not work because the people are involved in it," he said in an address to the Asia Society.

Elaborating further, he said: "It is not possible. Nobody can do it. He'll be eliminated. He'll be out of government. He'll be defeated. His government will be defeated," Musharraf said it was also time that India dropped its opposition to outside mediation in the Kashmir question.

"We have been trying for all these years through a bilateral approach to move forward on Kashmir, and where has it ended?" the president asked.

"If bilateralism is not producing results then certainly mediation or third-party involvement is the answer," he said.

PTI

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