Islamabad: The United States had informed the proposed dates for the Trilateral Dialogue to Pakistan one week before the release of double murder-accused CIA contractor Raymond Davis, which indicates that both countries had reached a consensus that the American would be released before the talks.
Washington had suggested March 26 for the Trilateral Dialogue in Brussels to be attended by the US, Pakistan and Afghanistan, a newspaper reported.
Previously, the US had postponed the dialogue, which was originally scheduled to be held in February, to put pressure on Pakistan for an early release of Davis.
The US had also not approached Pakistan for probable dates for President Asif Ali Zardari’s visit to America, but had not withdrawn the invitation, though there were speculations that his US visit was also under threat if Davis issue did not come to an amicable resolution.
It was only on the Pak-US Strategic Dialogue that both sides were pointing to the second week of April, with the spokespersons from both countries saying: “We have not heard otherwise”.
Officials agree that since Pakistan was informed about the March 26 schedule for the Trilateral Dialogue in Brussels a week before Davis’ release, this meant that both nations had consented that Davis would be free by then, the report said.
So the date of March 16 was safe enough, and was a done deal, it said, adding that in other words, the General Headquarters (GHQ), the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the President and Prime Minister’s offices and the Foreign Office knew of the exact date, otherwise the latter would not have been given the proposed dates for the dialogue.
Interestingly, the US Embassy had indicated much earlier on March 10 that Davis would be released, as this was the date of US Ambassador Cameron Munter’s statement that was sent to the media when Davis was released on March 16.
The US spokesman later clarified that this was ‘inadvertently’ included in the statement.
ANI
