ISLAMABAD -  Former president Asif Ali Zardari has urged the international community to help resolve the Kashmir dispute, the unfinished agenda of the 1947 partition of the sub continent, a longest un-disposed item on the agenda of the United Nations and a real and potent threat to peace and stability in the region.

In a statement yesterday the former president also called for restraint, avoidance of escalation and eschewing war drums in the existing standoff between India and Pakistan.

“War is no solution to the issues between two nuclear armed neighbours,” he said adding that a fair, honourable and equitable settlement based on the wishes of the Kashmiri people would have to be arrived at through dialogue and dialogue alone.

“It will also not serve anyone if the existing tension between the two countries were allowed to spill over into other areas as well in the Pakistan-India bilateral relations,” he cautioned.

“As we stoutly defend the political and human rights of the Kashmiri people we also recognize the need to work together towards bringing about a climate conducive to lasting peace and stability in the region and the welfare of its peoples.”

Rhetoric and war mongering is unhelpful, indeed counterproductive, as by its very nature it is escalatory and not conciliatory, he further said.

“The people of Pakistan are united in countering any threat to our integrity and security,” the former president concluded.