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ISI has responded to Indian dossier, says Gilani

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani on Friday described the Indian decision to “freeze” the composite dialogue process in the wake of the Mumbai attacks as “regrettable,” and urged the world not to let tensions between the two countries escalate.

His remarks came as U.S. Vice-President-elect Joe Biden arrived here on a day’s visit during which he met President Asif Ali Zardari. Mr. Gilani and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi were also present.

The outgoing chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a separate meeting with Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.

According to a statement from the President’s Office, Mr. Biden gave out the assurance that “the new U.S. administration believes in having a long, real and broad commitment to Pakistan with a view to support its stability and nascent democracy.”

Mr. Zardari apprised Mr. Biden about the measures the Pakistan government is taking to combat militancy, extremism and terrorism.

Mr. Biden and Mr. Zardari are said to have discussed in detail the tensions between India and Pakistan in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks.

Mr. Zardari also conferred the Hilal-e-Pakistan, a high civilian honour, on Mr. Biden who as a Senator co-sponsored the Biden-Kerry-Lugar legislation for expanding socio-economic assistance of $15 billion ($1.5 billion annually) including non-military aid over the next five fiscal years, besides advocating an additional $7.5 billion over the subsequent five years.

Earlier this week, Mr. Zardari conferred the same award on U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher.

Mr. Gilani, meanwhile, made the surprising revelation that New Delhi had sent a 52-page dossier “through the CIA,” and the ISI had already given its feedback on this to the American intelligence agency, and “this has been passed on to India.”

Mr. Gilani made these remarks to journalists after speaking at a seminar in Islamabad.

Indian officials here said they had no knowledge of any dossier handed to Pakistan through the CIA. They said they had received no response yet on the material given by New Delhi directly to Pakistan earlier this week.

The Prime Minister also told the journalists that there were no differences between him and Mr. Zardari, and defended his decision to fire his National Security Adviser Maj.-Gen. (retired) Mahmud Ali Durrani, as “in the national interest.” He said it would help in “better governance.”

At the seminar, entitled “Strengthening Democracy in Pakistan” and attended by a delegation of British parliamentarians, Mr. Gilani described as “fragile” the situation on the border with India. “In the interest of peace and progress in South Asia our democratic government has done a lot in terms of normalisation of relations between Pakistan and India, ” he said.

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