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Friday, May 16, 2008
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Blasts may not overshadow Islamabad talks

Nirupama Subramanian

The fourth round of the composite dialogue process to be reviewed on May 20-21

A familiarisation trip for Pranab
Signing of a consular access agreement likely

ISLAMABAD: Both Pakistan and India appear keen to ensure that the Jaipur blasts do not overshadow next week’s talks when External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee makes his first visit here after the new PPP-led government took office.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Sadiq played down reports in the Indian and Pakistani media about veiled Indian suggestions of a Pakistani hand in the blasts that killed over 60 people.

Responding to questions at his weekly briefing on Thursday, Mr. Sadiq said Pakistan had not heard anything about this from the Indian government. He also downplayed Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon’s remarks that the issue of terrorism would be taken up during the talks.

The spokesman said “terrorism and drug trafficking” was one of the eight segments in the composite dialogue process, the fourth round of which the Foreign Secretaries and the Foreign Ministers are due to review at the May 20-21 meetings.

Mr. Sadiq said terrorism was a “common threat” to the two countries, and itself being a victim of terrorism, Pakistan was committed to combating it. He pointed out that both Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had condemned the attacks.

The Indian side is saying there is no information yet of a Pakistani hand in the Jaipur blasts, and while the issue of terrorism will come up in the talks next week, it will be as a general reiteration of the “fundamental principle” that Pakistan must not allow its territory to be used for attacks in India, rather than as a reference to any one incident.

Aside from fulfilling the “important but restricted” agenda of reviewing the fourth round of the composite dialogue process that has been hanging fire since October 2007, Mr. Mukherjee’s visit would be a “getting to know you trip,” a familiarisation process with the new government, officials said.

Mr. Qureshi is, however, no stranger to the India-Pakistan peace process, having been involved in the “track two” diplomacy that went on simultaneously with the official peace process. The new Foreign Secretary, Salman Bashir, is also said to be hands-on with the peace process.

The spokesman said Pakistan was “very positive” about the upcoming talks. “We hope to make further progress. If you look at the history, at the last four or five years, we can see that there is clear progress,” Mr. Sadiq said. “We hope to make progress on the core issue of Jammu and Kashmir in addition to other issues”.

Responding to questions about Prime Minister Gillani’s description of President Musharraf’s Kashmir proposals as “half-baked,” he said an elected Parliament added “interesting and positive elements” to policy formulation. He said the government’s policy would be framed keeping national interests in mind.

Countering questions about the slow progress of the process, the spokesman said diplomacy was typically a “slow process” and it moved at “a glacial speed.” The complex issues the country was facing would need time and effort to resolve.

But the Pakistani side is also keen to push for some “outcomes” from the visit. Foreign Ministry officials said Pakistan’s draft on liberalisation of the visa regime had been with India for some time, and Mr. Mukherjee’s visit would be an opportune time to announce it.

Indian officials said this was unlikely to happen, as New Delhi still needs clarifications on Pakistan’s draft. They said the Pakistan proposals were an improvement on last year’s draft but still a watered-down version of the Indian proposals.

The two sides are more likely to sign a consular access agreement that will provide officials of the two countries easier access to their nationals in jails of the other country.

The issue of Indian and Pakistani prisoners languishing for years in each other’s jails has been the focus of attention and high emotion since the release of the death-row prisoner Kashmir Singh, who spent 35 years before being discovered and freed by Pakistani authorities earlier this year. Pakistanis are outraged that since that release, two of their compatriots have died in Indian custody.

An agreement for cultural exchange between the Pakistan National Council of Arts and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations is also on the cards.

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