At FS talks,Pak said call in Ministers next,India said no

Pakistan Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir,sources said,conveyed that the three terror dossiers could have been handed over to the Pakistan High Commissioner and that his coming here should lead to a more substantive outcome. In this context,he extended the invitation for Krishna on behalf of the Pakistan Foreign Minister to visit Islamabad and suggested that Foreign Secretaries could meet a day before to finalise the agenda.

According to the Pakistan proposal,the meeting between the Foreign Ministers would lay the ground for discussions between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pak counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani on the margins of the SAARC meet in Bhutan late April where the resumption of the composite dialogue could be announced through a joint statement.

But India was not in favour of this approach. Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao is said to have responded that it would be better for the FS-level dialogue to continue for the moment and,in that spirit,she was prepared to travel to Islamabad. The Pakistan side agreed reluctantly but has not yet followed it up with a formal invitation.

The Indian side had its own set of suggestions on official level talks. Besides proposing meetings on cross-LoC trade,India suggested holding a meeting between Commerce Secretaries to carry forward discussions on trade issues and a meeting of the Indo-Pak judicial committee for release of civilian prisoners and fishermen.

India also took note of a pending request from Pakistan to send a team of its Railway officials to study Indian plans for building a freight corridor and extended an invite for the same. Also,an invitation was renewed for the Pakistan Election Commissioner to visit India,a trip cancelled due to the IPL controversy.

But these proposals didn’t elicit a positive response from Pakistan which is more keen on “political-level,” meetings. In fact,sources said,Islamabad is not prepared yet to even move forward on back channel talks until a firm political direction is agreed upon.

New Delhi,on its part,feels that court proceedings against the 26/11-accused must reach some logical conclusion in the form of sentencing the guilty. Also,the Indian side is certain about the involvement of a serving Pakistani military official in the Mumbai attacks and wants that to be probed fully. “Credible” action on this front,sources said,are vital before India can proceed towards a comprehensive dialogue.

Due to such basic differences,gaps are widening with issues like Pakistan’s domestic problem of river-water sharing being spun as an Indo-Pak problem. At the forefront of this,are groups like the banned Jamaat-ud-Dawa which is only deepening suspicion in New Delhi over Islamabad’s larger intention.