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Islamabad, Feb 8 (IANS) Pakistan has indicated it would not be possible for it to send its foreign secretary to India for talks without making progress towards on the composite dialogue, stalled in the wake of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, a private TV channel reported on Monday.
“If India wants talks on one-point agenda and other issues have been ignored, then Pakistan is unlikely to send its foreign secretary to India for talks”, the channel quoted sources privy to the developments as saying.
The report came a day after Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi talked tough, saying Pakistan had not knelt before India, and that it had now been forced to return to the negotiation table.
“India had broken off the composite dialogue process and spoken of severing contacts with Pakistan. It has come to us and sought talks. We never kneeled before them and did not bow to their pressure,” Qureshi said at a gathering in his Multan hometown Sunday.
It was made known Sunday that India had proposed two dates, Feb 18 or Feb 25, for the foreign secretary level talks.
At the same time, India said it was premature to talk about resuming the composite dialogue at the present moment and has made it clear to Pakistan that the proposed talks are part of “a step-by-step incremental approach” and that Islamabad should “do more” to address New Delhi’s concerns over cross-border terror.
Pakistani High Commissioner Shahid Malik is in Islamabad to discuss the dates with the foreign office.
The TV channel quoted sources as saying that Malik had been called to Islamabad to ascertain whether India was ready for resuming the composite dialogue or wants talks on a one point agenda.
Malik had met Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao in New Delhi on Friday to work out the modalities for the talks, during which New Delhi had indicated that it was ready to discuss all bilateral issues of concern.
Islamabad, Feb 8 (IANS) Are Pakistani politicians speaking at cross-purposes on Kashmir? It would seem so, with Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi expressing ignorance that the issue was close to resolution as a result of back-channel diplomacy with India by the previous government.
“Neither I, nor the people of Pakistan have any knowledge about a Kashmir solution evolved by the previous government,” he told reporters here Sunday.
No such proposal had ever been debated, nor was there any record about it at the foreign office, he added.
Qureshi’s predecessor Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri contested this Monday, saying that according to his information, the record was available with the Pakistani government of the back-channel talks with India on Kashmir.
“In fact, President Asif Ali Zardari, in his first press conference had referred to the progress on Kashmir and had stated rather over enthusiastically that he was aware of the progress made on Kashmir dispute and that the nation would soon hear good news over the issue,” Kasuri said in a statement here.
“At least President Zardari, according to my knowledge, was aware of the details of the back-channel diplomacy and the presidency had the related record of the details regarding talks on the Kashmir issue,” Kasuri added.
He also found it “unfortunate and unbelievable” that “there was a total disconnect between the presidency and the foreign office over the issue”.
“If the presidency has the record, normally the foreign office should have an access to it if it is related to the foreign policy of Pakistan.
“Moreover, it would be fair assumption that the presidency would share the details with the foreign minister and as such, I find the foreign minister’s statement most surprising,” Kasuri added.
He also pointed out that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, on May 2, 2009 had also referred to the development on Kashmir when he stated: “I have always believed that a strong, peaceful, moderate Pakistan is in India’s interest. We worked hard on that and in fact, I and (then president) General Musharraf had reached nearly an agreement, a non-territorial solution to all the problems but then because of the difficulties with the chief justice and other fronts, the whole process came to a halt.”
The reference was to Musharraf’s running battle with Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry in 2007, with the latter being sacked, reinstated and then sacked again when an emergency was declared Noc 3, 2007. Chaudhry was again reinstated last year.
Maintaining that information about the progress in the back-channel diplomacy on Kashmir was in the public domain, Kasuri pointed to an article written by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Steve Coll in the New Yorker in March 2009.
After talking to Indian, Pakistani and American officials, Coll had written in detail about the progress on the back-channel track, Kasuri said.
The back-channel negotiations with India were on the basis of peace with honour and in accordance with the aspirations of the people of Kashmir and acceptability to the people of India and Pakistan, Kasuri contended.
Islamabad, Feb 8 (IANS) India is sponsoring terrorism in Pakistan via Afghanistan, a former Pakistani minister charged Monday.
“If India talks about terrorism then India should not forget that it is also involved in sponsoring terrorism and extremism in Pakistan from Afghanistan,” Online news agency quoted Mushahid Hussain as telling a private TV channel.
Hussain, a former information and broadcasting minister, is the secretary general of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) that ruled the country for five years till it was ousted in the February 2008 general elections.
Answering a question, he said the “meddling of India in Pakistan should also be discussed in the composite dialogue”.
Ever since it was made known last week that India had invited Pakistan for foreign secretary-level talks, Pakistani politicians have been referring to this as the composite dialogue process that New Delhi had frozen in the wake of the 26/11 Mumbai carnage that it has blamed on elements operating from this country.
On its part, India has said it was premature to talk about resuming the composite dialogue at the present moment and made it clear to Pakistan that the proposed talks are part of “a step-by-step incremental approach” and that Islamabad should “do more” to address New Delhi’s concerns over cross-border terror.
Hussain claimed that mounting pressure of the international community had forced India to resume talks with Pakistan, adding that Kashmir, water and other lingering issues should also figure in the discussions.
There was complete consensus in Pakistan about relations with India as well as on the Kashmir issue and the government should take the entire political leadership of the country into confidence over the talks, he added.
Pakistan should enter into talks with India without any fear, Hussain maintained.
Responding to another question, he said: “We have no objection if India is keen to play any role for development of Afghanistan but its desire to form an anti-Pakistan government in Afghanistan is intolerable (unacceptable).”
Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India Shahid Malik is currently in Islamabad to discuss the two dates – Feb 18 or Feb 25 – proposed by India for the foreign secretary-level talks in New Delhi.
Malik had on Friday met Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao to work out the modalities for the talks, at which New Delhi has indicated that it is ready to discuss all bilateral issues of concern.
Islamabad, Feb 8 (IANS) President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday called for taking Pakistan-China trade and commercial ties to new heights as the two countries were natural partners in the economic growth of the region.
“Strengthening and expanding cooperation with China in all fields is one of the key principles guiding Pakistan’s foreign policy,” Zardari said during his meeting with a Chinese delegation led by Huang Xinoxiang, the vice governor of Sichuan province.
Referring to his four visits to China since assuming office in 2008, Zardari said Pakistan continued to learn from the Chinese economic and development miracle and benefit from its expertise in diverse areas of agriculture, education, communications, commerce, energy and industry, Associated Press of Pakistan reported.
He said the current level of bilateral trade of $7 billion was much below the potential and urged that it be ramped to $15 billion by 2011.
Zardari’s remarks came on the day Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, speaking at a function in Karachi, also lauded Pakistan’s growing ties with China.
“The unique characteristics of this relationship have been that it is based on the principle of non-interference in each others internal affairs and it is not directed against any country,” he said at the induction ceremony of the Chinese-built frigate PNS Shamsheer.
“These mutually respected principles…have combined to strengthen our relations, which has helped ensure stability and equilibrium in our region for the past six decades,” Gilani added.