October 15, 2002	Tuesday	Sha'aban 8, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Oct 14: Foreign Office on Monday took strong notice of the remarks made by Indian Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha in an interview with BBC.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman described Yashwant Sinha’s remarks about elections in Pakistan as “provocative and ludicrous.”

The spokesman said Yashwant Sinha’s remarks reflected his blinkered vision and antipathy towards Pakistan.

It was bizarre to see the foreign minister of a Hindu fundamentalist regime and a prominent member of a fana-tical Hindu political party holding forth about the possible rise of so-called fundamentalism elsewhere, the spokesman said.

He further said that Sinha’s observations describing the future government in Pakistan as a “lame duck government” was not only crass but a crude attempt to interfere in Pakistan’s affairs.

The spokesman maintained that given the havoc that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government had wrought in the occupied Kashmir as well as in Gujarat and also taking into account the dwindling fortunes of the BJP, its stalwarts should focus on their own prob-lems rather than poking their nose in the internal affairs of Pakistan.

“Time has come for India to forego its imperious attitu-de towards neighbours and engage in a sincere and pro-ductive dialogue to resolve all outstanding issues inclu-ding the Kashmir problem,” he said.