NEW DELHI, May 7: Though Pakistan does not have a single-point agenda for the forthcoming talks between Prime Ministers I K Gujral and Nawaz Sharif, Kashmir will provide the context in which that agenda can be articulated, Pakistan's High Commissioner to India Ashraf Jahangir Qazi said here today.

``For us, Kashmir provides the context in which the talks will take place. To ask questions outside that context will be unrealistic,'' Qazi said in an interview with The Indian Express. ``But nothing is excluded. Nothing is on the backburners. The burners are all lit. Sure, some fires may be a little stronger than others, he added.''

The High Commissioner's comments, on the eve of the first prime-ministerial dialogue between India and Pakistan in many years, may be seen as an attempt by Islamabad to retain the primacy of Kashmir in the bilateral dialogue -- but also appear to come to the negotiating table with a freshness of purpose.

Clearly, Qazi was striking the first blow in the propaganda war that will be unleashed over the next few days as the two Prime Ministers wend their way to their Maldives meeting.

Qazi sought to emphasise that the atmosphere between the two Premiers at Male was the main thing (``it's a fluid, opening, creative stage'') and that the press shouldn't flunk historic opportunities with scepticism.

Nawaz Sharif, he said, would reiterate the brief that the ``core issue of Kashmir'' remained fundamental in improving the bilateral relationship, even as he sought to concurrently bring other issues into the penumbra of the dialogue.

Gujral, on the other hand, he added, had played a very important role in Track II diplomacy with Pakistan. Islamabad now hoped that India and Pakistan would use the Male round to take stock of why the official dialogue had got interrupted in the past and kickstart a new, healthy exchange of views.

Qazi was clear, however, that Kashmir was the key to the whole relationship. ``Kashmir feeds into the whole relationship...without it, we might get marginal, one-time movements which are not sustainable and which will slowly peter out.''

He was obviously referring to the unilateral relaxation of visas by Gujral a few months ago and the spoken need by various Indians to separate trade and economic co-operation from political issues.

Taking issues like trade and people-to-people contact outside ``the context of Kashmir,'' like India wants, could in fact ``adversely impact upon the ambience'' that the two Prime Ministers of the neighbouring countries seek to build in Male, Qazi said.

``We can talk about trade till the cows come home, but if the bilateral relationship remains strained, any progress you may have made will not be self-sustaining,'' he added.

The High Commissioner refused to be drawn into the specifics of Pakistan's agenda for the forthcoming ``substantive'' dialogue with India, saying that that would be the job for the two Foreign Secretaries when they meet later in the month.

On Siachen, revival of the joint commission on trade or confidence-building measures, the key issue would be to develop momentum on Kashmir, Qazi added.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.