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"I am not president yet," Pakistan military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf told Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in a lighter vein when the latter rang him up on Wednesday morning to greet him on the former's impending assumption of office as the country's president, according to external affairs ministry spokeswoman Nirupama Rao.
Vajpayee had addressed Gen Musharraf as 'Mr President' when he spoke to the latter to thank him for his message for speedy recovery after undergoing knee replacement surgery, Rao said.
She told reporters that the prime minister had congratulated Gen Musharraf 'in anticipation'.
Asked whether India supported the Commonwealth statement on the restoration of democracy in Pakistan, the MEA spokeswoman pointed out that 'democracy is something which the people of Pakistan should decide'.
Rao refused to comment on a statement by the Pakistan foreign office that Kashmir remained the core issue, which could not be solved without the participation of the Kashmiri people in the impending Vajpayee-Musharraf talks in New Delhi.
However, she informed that 'cross-border terrorism is a concern' and would figure in the talks.
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