The Hindu : Pakistan envoy calls on Shashank

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 14, 2004

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Pakistan envoy calls on Shashank

By Amit Baruah

NEW DELHI, FEB. 13. Three days before official-level talks begin between India and Pakistan in Islamabad, the Pakistani High Commissioner to India, Aziz Ahmed Khan, met the Foreign Secretary, Shashank, at South Block today.

Specific details of the meeting were not immediately available. It is the first formal call that the High Commissioner has paid on Mr. Shashank since he took over as Foreign Secretary. Mr. Khan leaves for Islamabad on Monday.

The meeting took place in the context of the concerns expressed over the proposed tour of the Indian cricket team to Pakistan as well as the talks to be held on February 16-17 at the Joint Secretary-level and on February 18 between the Foreign Secretaries in Pakistan.

Interestingly, much of the media hype associated with India-Pakistan talks seems to be missing this time as the Joint Secretary (Pakistan), Arun Singh, prepares to meet his Pakistani counterpart, the Director-General (South Asia), Jaleel Abbas Jilani.

Mr. Jilani, as Pakistan's Deputy High Commissioner, had been expelled from New Delhi last year on the charge of passing money to a Kashmiri woman. He is now the pointman for India in the Pakistani Foreign Ministry.

The revelations in Pakistan about the nuclear scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections in India and the controversy surrounding India's cricket tour have all ensured that the focus on the coming talks is limited.

However, both countries would like to ensure that the momentum generated in the bilateral relationship by the January contacts at the highest level between the two countries continues without incident, according to diplomatic observers. Asked if the Foreign Secretaries would look at the implementation of the November ceasefire, for instance, in their February 18 talks, the sources replied in the negative.

"These are just talks about talks. No substantive issues [like proliferation] are going to figure in the discussions. We will be working out the agenda on the basis of the 1997 and 1998 agreements on the composite dialogue," the sources told this correspondent.

One of the issues of interest to India is terrorism — a subject that is to be dealt with by Home Secretaries. What will be the nature of the discussion in the future composite dialogue, the exact agenda, could be agreed to in the talks about talks. From the Pakistani standpoint, Jammu and Kashmir is the key issue.

The Foreign Secretaries discussed Kashmir, along with the issue of peace and security, in October 1998. If India is keen on breaking down the main subjects, Pakistan, too, could be expected to do the same on areas of concern for it.

The "when" of the composite dialogue is also likely to be agreed to at the official-level talks, the sources said.

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