MESSAGE BOARD NEWSLINKS US EDITION COLUMNISTS DIARY SPECIALS INTERVIEWS CAPITAL BUZZ REDIFF POLL DEAR REDIFF ELECTIONS ARCHIVES SEARCH REDIFF
K J M Varma in Islamabad
Pakistan on Monday dismissed as 'peripheral' easing of visa restrictions by India and made it clear that its response to New Delhi's confidence-building measures hinged on the outcome of the Agra summit.
Harping on the centrality of the Kashmir issue, President Pervez Musharraf said that India must realise that Kashmir is the source of tension between the two countries and its resolution was a must for peace.
Pakistan is interested in discussing the Kashmir issue, which is the 'core' problem between the two countries, and 'all other issues are peripheral,' Interior Ministry Secretary Tasneem Noorani said reacting to India's announcement of easing visa regime for Pakistanis.
A Foreign ministry statement said discussion on visa regime and other issues should flow from the summit between Musharraf and Vajpayee.
That Pakistan would not for now respond positively to India's series of CBMs was further driven home when defence spokesman Major General Rashid Qureshi said 'the biggest CBM would be resolution of the Kashmir issue'.
"What more CBMs are needed if you can resolve the Kashmir issue which was the biggest irritant between the two countries," he said.
Commerce Minister Razak Dawood told reporters on Monday evening that he met Musharraf and it was decided that the time was inopportune for discussion on granting most favoured nation status to India.
Pakistan officially intimated to India that Musharraf would lead a 24-member official delegation, which would have only Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar. The other top officials of the delegation would be Foreign Secretary Inamul Haq and Major General Rashid Qureshi, who is Musharraf's spokesman.
The delegation would have five more officials who headed India and South Asia desks. The rest of the team comprises of Musharraf's personal and security officials.
The composition of the delegation shows that Musharraf has given up his previous idea of taking with him interior and commerce ministers.
Before the controversy over extending invitations to Hurriyat Conference leaders to meet the military ruler at a reception in New Delhi broke out, Pakistan, according its own officials, planned to take a 63-member delegation comprising officials, intellectuals and journalists.
In keeping with the hype on the Kashmir issue, Dawood does not figure in the delegation.
PTI
The Indo-Pak Summit 2001: Complete Coverage
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