Bus Plan for India and Pakistan Hits Roadblock

India and Pakistan hit a roadblock today in their months-long effort to open a bus route that both governments agree would be an important step toward bringing peace to the divided territory of Kashmir.

In 45 minutes of talks over lunch, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh couldn’t resolve a dispute over technicalities that for months have blocked the proposed bus service across a 1972 cease-fire line that splits Kashmir between the two nations.

“In the meeting, we talked about the need for having a bus service, but we have to sort out the details of what travel documents will be required,” Aziz told reporters. “And we hope that that can be done in an amicable manner fairly soon.”

To reinforce its claim that Kashmir belongs to India, New Delhi has argued that bus travelers should carry passports. But Pakistan, where powerful Islamic parties accuse India of trying to permanently divide the territory, says passengers should cross with U.N. travel documents.

The two countries’ foreign secretaries, the top civil servants in their foreign ministries, are scheduled to meet early next month “and that is when these details will be sorted out,” Aziz said.

The road linking Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, with Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir, has been blocked since 1947, when the newly independent countries went to war over the Himalayan territory.

Indian authorities have begun repairs on the road. If the route is opened, it could reunite families separated for decades and allow new trade and cultural links. Supporters of the link say that making travel easier would also help break down psychological barriers built by years of propaganda from successive governments in New Delhi and Islamabad.

The dispute over Kashmir, a mainly Muslim territory with areas dominated by minority Hindus and Buddhists, has caused two of three wars between India and Pakistan. India, which has a Hindu majority, is fighting an insurgency in its Jammu and Kashmir state against militants that it says are trained and armed by Pakistan, a mainly Muslim country.

“The dialogue process will continue,” Aziz said. “Pakistan wants peace with its neighbors, and peace with India, and we want to settle all issues in a manner which is friendly and which helps our whole region grow.”

India and Pakistan have made it clear they are trying to make gradual progress in a peace process that began last year. Previous efforts have collapsed after dramatic summits produced agreements that weren’t implemented.

But even the slower approach of negotiating diplomatic confidence-building measures, such as the Kashmir bus route, has proved difficult as negotiators get bogged down in technical disputes and frustrated politicians revert to hard-line rhetoric.

Musharraf wants India to move faster toward a final solution to the conflict. He has survived three assassination attempts, and Aziz narrowly escaped another in July. They know the dangers could mount if ordinary Pakistanis lose faith in peace talks with India.

India gave Aziz a little ammunition to defend the talks back home by allowing him to meet Tuesday in New Delhi with Kashmiri separatist leaders from several factions. Local reports say he spent much of the time urging the factions to unite.

Musharraf recently suggested to diplomats and reporters in Islamabad that he was willing to radically shift Pakistan’s position on the decades-long conflict over Kashmir by dropping a demand that for a binding referendum on the territory’s future.

Instead, possible solutions included dividing the territory along ethnic rather than religious lines, demilitarizing some of those areas, and granting them autonomy or putting them under joint rule, Musharraf suggested. Singh appeared to slam the door shut on a compromise by insisting that Kashmir belongs to India, and that the country’s borders cannot be redrawn.

Aziz tried to defuse the argument by assuring Singh that Musharraf’s suggestions were only meant to get Pakistanis talking about possible compromises.

“The options discussed by the president of Pakistan were merely a basis for discussion within Pakistan for debate on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir,” the Pakistani prime minister said Wednesday. “No proposals were ever presented to India and no reaction was expected from India.

“We did talk about the essence of these proposals today, but more as a piece of information for the Indian prime minister of what we have in mind,” Aziz added.

Aziz also left without a deal on a proposed $4.2-billion pipeline that would bring natural gas from Iran to India through Pakistan. India is pressing for a package deal that opens more trade and transportation links with Pakistan.

Aziz said the pipeline is going to be built as far as Pakistan with or without India’s support, but welcomed it to join in if it wants to fulfill its economy’s surging demand for more energy.