Islamabad, Feb 18: Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Muhammad Kasuri has said the Indian leadership is refusing to resume dialogue due to 'internal political compulsions' and assailed his counterpart Yashwant Sinha and Defence Minister George Fernandes for joining the 'no-talk rhetoric'. "Top Indian leaders repeatedly ruled out possibility of talks with Pakistan because of their internal political compulsions," Kasuri said in an interview to local daily Dawn published on Tuesday. He said he was concerned by the 'anti-talk rhetoric' of Sinha and Fernandes, whom he considered "secular and socialist" leaders.

This, he said, pointed towards a 'deeply troubling' situation within Indian polity where "seemingly liberal people were also compelled to repeat such provocative assertions."

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"For its part the Pakistan government headed by Pakistan Muslim League-Q, faced no such compulsions and was convinced that all outstanding issues could be resolved with India through a composite dialogue," he said.

Kasuri however did not give direct answers to queries on likely meeting with Sinha at Kuala Lumpur, where foreign ministers of NAM countries are to meeting before the summit meeting next week.

Claiming that the situation in Pakistan was quite different, Kasuri, expressed optimism that the two countries would "ultimately" resolve their disputes "amicably" in the coming years and called on the civil societies in both countries to strive towards improvement of bilateral ties.

Kasuri said he was not "unmindful" of the fact that India was a plural society and not in too distant a future the forces of its civil society would reassert themselves.

Kasuri also criticised the Vajpayee government for accusing Pakistan of nourishing fundamentalist forces. "Had it been so, Pakistan would have been under serious pressure to refuse dialogue with India."

"But," he said, "Pakistan had repeatedly stressed the need for initiating dialogue to resolve all outstanding problems between the two countries, including the issue of Kashmir.

He, however, skirted questions about the possibility of resumption of the air, road and railway links between the two countries and reiterated the Pakistani stand that it was India which snapped the links to meet the requirements of its domestic electoral agenda.

He said recent expulsion of acting High Commissioners and reduction in the diplomatic staff in the two countries was also forced by India.

In response to a question on the SAARC summit, Kasuri said Pakistan would soon propose new dates for the summit to be held in Islamabad. Bureau Report