Islamabad, February 09: Even as Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi did some rabble-rousing in his home constituency of Multan, the Pakistan High Commissioner in New Delhi, Shahid Malik, was all set to fly down to Islamabad for consultations with Pakistan foreign office on Wednesday.
Sources said Malik would give feedback on his meeting with Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and his inputs would be crucial for the Pakistan establishment to respond on India’s offer of talks.
Hours after India proposed dates for Foreign Secretary-level talks, Pakistan claimed it had not knelt before India, which has been “forced” to return to the negotiating table.
“India, which had broken off the Composite Dialogue process and spoken of severing contacts with Pakistan, has come to us and sought talks. We never knelt before them and did not bow down to their pressure,” Qureshi said while addressing a public meeting in Multan.
In Delhi, however, much importance was not attached to Qureshi’s remarks. Sources pointed out that he was making a speech at a rally in his hometown and was pandering to the domestic audience.
Qureshi has convened an inter-ministerial meeting in the Foreign Office to be held on February 10 to assess India’s proposal and to finalise a strategy and agenda for the talks. According to Pakistan media reports, this meeting is expected to be attended by representatives of the defence and interior ministries and senior officials of intelligence agencies.
India has proposed talks between Foreign Secretaries of the two countries either on February 18 or February 25. Sources said New Delhi is expecting a response by the end of this week, if Islamabad decides to send Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir on February 18.
Bashir, who had come to India in November 2008 along with Qureshi, has been in touch with Rao in the last few months. They have spoken twice in the last two months and also know each other since they were posted in Beijing around the same time.
Sources said New Delhi is clear about not labelling these talks as Composite Dialogue. However, during the talks, New Delhi will discuss the core concerns regarding terrorism, issues of bilateral interest including humanitarian issues and impending visits by dignitaries from Pakistan.
Pakistan, on the other hand, is keen to resume the Composite Dialogue and this was indicated by Qureshi when he said talks should start from where they were left.
Talks were called off after the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008, when the fifth round of Composite Dialogue had been underway. Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Abdul Basit on Sunday said, “We already have an established framework and it would not be desirable to reinvent the wheel.”
—-Agencies