Islamabad: Pakistan on Thursday said it was not
responsible for the lack of progress in the recent Foreign
Secretary-level talks and the ball is now in India's court to
respond to its proposals like participation of the political
leadership in the dialogue process to normalise ties.
"We are not responsible," Foreign Office spokesman Abdul
Basit said during a weekly news briefing, when asked who was
responsible for the perceived deadlock in the Foreign
Secretary-level talks which were held in Delhi on February 25.
He hastened to add that it would be incorrect to describe
the talks "in terms of success or failure" but made it clear
that it is now up to India to respond to Pakistan's roadmap
for future engagements between the two sides.
Pakistan Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir presented the
roadmap to Indian leaders during meetings in New Delhi last
month.
"We are not happy that India is not yet ready to come
back to the composite dialogue process whereas Pakistan
yesterday again said it is not interested in talks for the
sake of talks," Basit said.
"There are proposals on the table and we will see how the
Indian leadership responds to the roadmap which Pakistan
suggested at New Delhi. It will be our desire that, for the
sake of this region and peace between our two countries, India
does revert to the dialogue process," he said.
Asked to give details about the roadmap, Basit said
Pakistan wanted to move forward from meetings between the
Foreign Secretaries and officials so that the political
leadership of both sides could be part of the dialogue.
"At this point, India wants to engage with Pakistan only
at the Foreign Secretary-level as well as to have other issues
discussed at the working level, whereas we would like this
process to go beyond that and also involve the political
leadership on both sides of the border. So that in essence is
the crux of our proposal," he said.
"If India agrees to our roadmap and to resume the
composite dialogue without any pre-conditions, I think India
will not find Pakistan wanting in this context. It is for
India to respond to our roadmap proposal," he said.
Basit made it clear that there would be "no point" in
engagements between the two sides if officials only met to
reiterate their positions.
He also said he had no information on whether the Indian
and Pakistani Prime Ministers would meet on the sidelines of a
nuclear safety summit in the US next month.
"I do not know yet... I have not seen any proposal (for a
meeting) as yet. So let's see how things evolve in the run up
to the summit in Washington," he said in response to a
question.
Replying to another question, Basit said Pakistan had
nothing to worry over Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's recent
visit to Saudi Arabia and the strategic partnership between
those two countries.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, March 04, 2010, 18:20