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Talks without pre-conditions: Pak.

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD APRIL 21. Pakistan today welcomed the offer of talks by the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, but maintained that it would like them to be without any `pre-conditions'.

The Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman, Aziz Ahmed Khan, told correspondents at his regular weekly briefing that ``pre-conditions'' were not necessary for the commencement of the dialogue process. He was answering a spate of questions on the hand of friendship extended by Mr. Vajpayee during his last weekend visit to Srinagar.

While Mr. Vajpayee had said on Saturday that India would await a formal response from Islamabad to his offer, Mr. Khan maintained that Pakistan would like to see further initiatives from New Delhi to kick-start the dialogue process. In other words, he was saying that the ball was in the Indian court and Mr. Vajpayee has merely said what Pakistan has been maintaining all along.

It has not gone unnoticed in diplomatic circles here that Pakistan has responded only orally to the latest peace missive by India. Not only has Islamabad chosen not to react formally, in the form of a statement, but also side-stepped the conditionalities set by Mr. Vajpayee for commencement of talks.

Mr. Khan, again in response to questions, made it a point to refer to the statements made by the Pakistan Prime Minister, Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, and the Foreign Minister, Khurshid Mehmud Kasuri, welcoming Mr. Vajpayee's peace offer. He clearly implied a suggestion that this response should be adequate for India to agree for talks.

Asked about the conditionalities — end to cross-border infiltration and closure of alleged militant camps — Mr. Khan argued that these were `old' allegations. "We have answered them several times in the past. There is no cross-border infiltration and if India insists otherwise, the best way to verify the charges is by strengthening the mechanism of United Nations Military Observers on both sides of the border''.

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