Pakistan denies receiving new proposals from India

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Saturday denied receiving any new set of proposals from India for the resumption of bilateral dialogue.

Foreign office spokesman Abdul Basit said he was unaware of the new proposals given by India. Indian foreign secretary Nirupama Rao had said Friday that new proposals have been sent to Pakistan to resume the stalled talks between both countries and a response is awaited.

Basit said that Pakistan is eager to resume the process of dialogue but is not willing to do it just for photo-sessions.

India has some issues with the bilateral dialogue and is not willing to talk about Kashmir, Siachen and other core issues which is against our stated position, he observed.

Both countries had agreed to resolve bilateral differences through composite dialogue following the SAARC conference in Islamabad in January 2004.

The pace of the dialogue was slow because India insisted on promoting economic, cultural and visa issues first, pending Kashmir and Siachen issues.

The peace process was jinxed after the 26/11 terrorist attacks in Mumbai as India accused Pakistan of exporting terrorism. The thaw in relationship came when Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna visited Islamabad but the joint communique could not be issued because of last minute differences on the respective stances over various issues.

(Awais Saleem can be contacted at ians.pakistan@gmail.com)