Islamabad: Pakistan Thursday said no meeting
has been fixed as yet between the Foreign Ministers of India
and Pakistan to take forward the bilateral process though it
would like them to meet as soon as possible.
Responding to a question during the weekly news
briefing, Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said no meeting
between the Foreign Ministers had been fixed in the wake of
the decision by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and his
Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh to revive the peace process
between the two countries.
"As the Prime Ministers agreed (on the sidelines of
the SAARC summit) in Thimphu, Pakistan would like the Foreign
Ministers to meet as soon as possible in order to nudge the
peace process forward," he said.
Replying to a question on Foreign Minister Shah
Mahmood Qureshi`s recent remarks that over 30 million acre
feet of water is either mismanaged or wasted within Pakistan,
Basit contended that mismanagement of water and India`s
alleged violations of the Indus Waters Treaty were two
separate issues.
"Let me make it very clear that the Foreign Minister
never said that India is not in violation of the Indus Waters
Treaty of 1960. What he said was that Indian violation of the
treaty and water management inside Pakistan are two different
issues," he said.
"These two issues should be dealt with separately
because they are two different problems," he added.
The Pakistan government is "seized" of India`s
alleged violations of the Indus Waters Treaty and has "already
moved in accordance with the dispute settlement mechanism as
provided for in the treaty", Basit said.
Basit said projects being built by India on several
rivers, including the Kishanganga project, were a matter of
concern for Pakistan.
PTI
