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| Kasuri-Menon meeting generates criticism in Pak | | |
Islamabad, Aug 9 Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri's meeting with Indian High Commissioner Shivshankar Menon this week to discuss the status of bilateral ties has sparked a debate in the Foreign Office, with some officials taking exception to it and saying it had undermined Islamabad's position.
On Monday, Menon called on Kasuri in the Foreign Office and held informal talks on the status of India-Pakistan ties in the aftermath of the last week's expulsion of the visa counsellor of the Indian High Commission, Deepak Kaul, to which India retaliated by expelling the political counsellor of the Pakistani mission in New Delhi.
Kasuri's decision to meet Menon has been criticised by certain quarters that claimed it had negated diplomatic norms. Menon should have called on the foreign secretary and not the foreign minister, Pakistani daily The Nation quoted unnamed officials as saying.
They also said Kasuri should have refused to see the envoy particularly when "Indians were stabbing us in the back", the report said.
Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam declined to react to the criticism of the Kasuri-Menon meeting, saying she would not like to comment on a newspaper report. Aslam also declined to comment on the meeting itself.
One official was quoted by The Nation as saying that New Delhi was not willing to resume formal talks even though it had resolved with Pakistan that no act of terror would derail the composite dialogue and that the peace process was "irreversible". |
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