Tuesday, Nov 11, 2003
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By B. Muralidhar Reddy
The Foreign Office spokesman, Masood Khan, made these remarks in response to a question on the statement made by the Information Minister, Sheikh Rashid Khan, hours before he left for New Delhi that Islamabad was yet to decide on the matter. In an interview to a Pakistan private television channel from Dubai, the Minister had said that Pakistan would take a view on who should lead its delegation only after receiving confirmation about the participation of the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee. ``What difference does it make whether the President, Pervez Musharraf, or Mr. Jamali lead the delegation? Let us first see whether India confirms Mr. Vajpayee's participation. We have not got any official confirmation from New Delhi so far,'' he said. Mr. Masood Khan, however, maintained that the External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha, had confirmed to his Pakistani counterpart in New York that Mr. Vajpayee would attend the Summit. At the same time he hastened to add that there was no official intimation from Delhi. ``It is normal practice to receive intimation.'' On the Indian military build up, Mr. Massod Khan said Pakistan cannot be expected to ``sit idle'' as India pressed ahead with its ``aggressive and ambitious military build up that targets Pakistan''. He urged India to put an end to what he termed state-sponsored repression in Kashmir and maintained that it would help promote peace and security in South Asia and bring about a solution to the longstanding problem of Kashmir. On the alleged bugging of Pakistan's mission in London by the British intelligence, Mr. Khan said that Islamabad had approached the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London on the issue. Pakistan would like a response from the British Government as to whether the operation was authorised by MI-5 or the Scotland Yard. ``The ball is in their [British Government] court. They can very easily determine about the incident and Pakistan will appreciate if they share their assessment with us,'' he said.
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