Pakistan's Sharif to offer India peace proposal at U.N. General Assembly

ISLAMABAD, Sept. 24 (UPI) -- Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will offer a new peace proposal to neighboring India next week at the United Nations General Assembly.

He will seek normalization of relations with India if violations of the so-called Line of Control -- or LoC -- demarcating Pakistani and Indian-held areas of the disputed Kashmir territory end, said an unnamed senior official who has seen the draft of his speech. The plan also hinges on whether India stops sponsoring terrorism in Pakistan.

"Premier Nawaz will propose to India a series of new steps to bring the situation along the LoC and working boundary under control," the official told the Karachi-based newspaper Express-Tribune.

Conflict at the Line of Control has increased in the past few weeks, threatening the ceasefire and leaving scores of civilians on both sides dead. Each side accuses the other of provoking hostilities.

Sharif's proposals are intended to increase Pakistan's profile in world affairs. The annual UN meeting will be an opportunity for Sharif's more direct involvement in offering to calm tension with India, as well as in Afghanistan, where Pakistan continues to support a negotiated settlement.

Pakistan has intensified efforts to keep the Afghan war out of Pakistan to the point that prominent Afghans who support the Taliban and reside in Pakistan have begun returning to their home country, the official said.