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| Pranab's Pak visit didn't start on perfect note | | Kasuri's 'no' to Siachen AGPL authentication | | B L KAK
NEW DELHI|JAN 14
Pakistan government, as was expected, extended due courtesies to the VIP visitor from India, Pranab Mukherjee, after his arrival in Pakistan on Jan. 13 on a two-day official visit. However, Mukherjee's maiden visit to Pakistan as Minister for External Affairs did not quite start on the perfect note. Nonetheless, he and his Pakistani counterpart, Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, more than made up for the initial hiccup.
Pranab Mukherjee and Kasuri did not have any big-ticket announcements to make but the two reached common ground on several issues making way for formal agreements in the months to come. The joint anti terror mechanism will meet before March end and the Foreign Secretaries of India and Pakistan will meet on March 13 and 14 to kick off the fourth round of the composite dialogue process.
Khurshid Kasuri will come to New Delhi next month for a meeting of the Joint Commission. At that time both countries will sign agreements to reduce risk from nuclear accidents and for expeditious release of prisoners. Liberalising the visa regime will be a priority in the months ahead.
By the time Pranab Mukherjee arrived in Pakistan, Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri denied the Indian suggestions that Pakistan may be prepared to authenticate the Actual Ground Position Line (AGPL) of Indian troops in the disputed Siachen Glacier in Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir State. Kasuri told the NDTV news channel that Islamabad could however accommodate Indian concerns by some other mechanism which he did not spell out.
"Pakistan is not for authentication of any positions, but is ready to address India's concerns", he said. "Ways and means can be found to ascertain actual troop positions", he added. Unnamed Indian officials have been quoted recently as suggesting that Pakistan was more prepared now than ever to accept on paper the positions of Indian troops in the glacier. India has refused to withdraw its troops from the glacier until Pakistan accepts the positions held by the two sides in the icy, barren region.
Kasuri also told the NDTV that the two sides were "discussing many ideas" for the resolution of Kashmir and Siachen issues. About India's demand that Pakistan dismantle alleged terror camps in Azad Kashmir for the peace process to move smoothly, Mr Kasuri said terrorism was Pakistan's concern also. Kasuri said: "The joint terror mechanism is to address that. Our intentions are clear. If India is the target of terror, so is Pakistan. Pakistan takes anti-terror mechanism very seriously."
If one of the main reasons for Mukherjee's visit to Pakistan was to hand over an invitation to Gen. Parvez Musharraf to attend the SAARC summit in New Delhi in April, the outcome was in no way productive in view of the Pakistan President's unwillingness to oblige India's External Affairs Minister. Pranab Mukherjee must have been taken aback when his invitation to Gen. Musharraf was hurriedly redirected to Pakistan Prime Minister, Shaukat Aziz.
Be that as it may, Mukherjee, at the end of his talks with Gen. Musharraf and Kasuri, said: "We have made a reasonable progress in three rounds of composite dialogue that took place and it ended with a positive note". Talks may be progressing but the surprise was against wide expectations, Gen. Musharraf has declined to visit Delhi. Instead, Pak PM Shaukat Aziz will lead the Pakistani delegation now.
But the good news at the end was that Pranab Mukherjee returned home with a special gift for families of Indian prisoners of wars. Gen. Musharraf has agreed to allow them to visit Pakistan to track down their loved ones. And even Indian diplomats based in Pakistan are happy that restrictions on their travel to Taxila and Murree will be eased in the months ahead.
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