Sources said there were indications from the Pakistani leadership that its provincial government in Punjab would be filing a review petition against Lahore High Court’s order freeing Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed before the two leaders meet again on the sidelines of the NAM summit in Egypt mid-July. They said this may happen as early as next week, before the foreign secretaries meet.

Returning from Russia, the Prime Minister told journalists, “We discussed India-Pakistan relations, which remain under considerable stress. The primary cause of this, as everyone knows, is the terrorist attacks against India from Pakistani territory... I conveyed to President Zardari the full extent of our expectation that the Government of Pakistan take strong and effective action to prevent the use of its territory for terrorist attacks against India, act against the perpetrators of past attacks and dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism in Pakistan. The President told me of Pakistan’s efforts to deal with this menace and the difficulties that they face.”

Responding to a separate question, he said, “He (Zardari) did mention to me the difficulties that Pakistan is facing in containing terrorism and asked us to bear with him, give him some more time.” There was no mention of Kashmir at anytime in the discussions, the PM clarified.

On the foreign secretaries discussing what Pakistan is doing and can do to prevent terrorism against India, he said, “They will report to us and we will take stock of the situation when we are at Sharm-el-Sheikh for the Non-Aligned Summit in mid-July.”

“We must try again to make peace with Pakistan. It also requires effective and strong action against the enemies of peace. If the leaders of Pakistan have the courage, determination and statesmanship to take the high road to peace, India will meet them more than half-way. These were the ideas and sentiments that I shared with the President of Pakistan.”

Singh said, “I explained to him that whereas Pakistan has now taken effective action against Taliban and al-Qaeda, we have a feeling that those elements who are actively engaged in perpetrating terrorists acts in our country are not being brought to justice. So my expectation is that this meeting of foreign secretaries will tell us whether Pakistan has taken effective action and if it plans to take effective action against these perpetrators of terrorism.”