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Jyoti Malhotra
New Delhi, Nov 9: In a move to dispel any impression that Islamabad is dragging its feet over the proposed Delhi-Lahore bus service, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has summoned Pak officials-currently engaged in talks in Delhi-back home to take immediate action.
This means that at least one Pakistani official will now break away from the Secretary-level dialogue on the Indus river, Siachen, terrorism and trade, and rush back to Islamabad tomorrow.
``The Prime Minister's office is calling us every day, asking when this bus is going to start. So one of us is flying back to get this activated soon,'' Pakistani sources said. ``Mian saheb,'' sources said, ``is very keen that we start this service right away.'' His office, it seemed, had been calling the South Asia desk in the foreign office in Islamabad over the last few daysand found no one there, since they were all in Delhi.
It also seems as if the propaganda war is only beginning. The ``our buses are better than yours'' refrain is catching up withone Pakistani official claiming that the Lahore-Delhi service would have sleeker Daewoo buses (``much better than your Delhi Transport Corporation'') and, believe it or not, even road hostesses.
The fact is that the ministry of external affairs gave a draft agreement to their counterparts as long as ten days ago. In fact, ministry officials, within three weeks of their return from New York where prime ministers Vajpayee and Sharif promised a bus service to their people, swung into the act, even talking to DTC directly.
The alacrity with which they moved obviously meant they had hit upon a propaganda mode: tie up all ends in Delhi, including a dry run, and give the bus to the Pakistanis. ``The idea was to put the onus on them,'' sources said.
It did. As the foreign office in Islamabad took time over assessing the agreement, Sharif's PMO began to worry about the PR effect this might have. The upshot is that Pak officials are now talking about ``tentative dates'' for the launch of the bus service-eitherthe third week or end-November. The approximate fare from Lahore to Delhi, thrice a week, is expected to be around 300 Pakistani rupees.
Pakistani officials are now talking about immediately freeing all Indian fishermen caught straying into their waters. Fact is, on the eve of this dialogue round, New Delhi had announced that it was freeing all 155 Pakistani fishermen in Indian jails ``with immediate effect.''
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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