January 2, 2003	Thursday	Shawwal 28, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Jan 1: Pakistan and India exchanged information on Wednesday on their nuclear installations and facilities through diplomatic channels.

According to an announcement made by the foreign office, pursuant to Article-II of the Pakistan-India Agreement on Prohibition of Attacks Against Nuclear Installations and Facilities, both countries are required to exchange information on the first working day of every year.

A source familiar to the issue said exchange of information on nuclear installations and facilities was a routine matter.

Meanwhile, the Indian foreign ministry and diplomats said in New Delhi that despite their tense ties, India and Pakistan exchanged information on Wednesday on their nuclear installations which are covered under an agreement against launching attacks against these.

Diplomats told Dawn, however, there had been no perceptible change in the information that both countries gave each 12 years ago about their nuclear installations, suggesting that they were masking rather than revealing the essential worries that led to the pact in the first place.

For the 12th consecutive year, India and Pakistan, through diplomatic channels simultaneously at New Delhi and Islamabad, exchanged lists of nuclear installations and facilities on Wednesday covered under the agreement, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The agreement was signed on Dec 31, 1988, and entered into force on Jan 27, 1991.

The first such exchange of lists took place on Jan 1, 1992.

This was so routine that it should not be confused with the larger picture of “our relations which are not the happiest at present,” a Pakistani diplomat said.

He said the bigger achievement, if Wednesday’s exchange was one, happened last year when India and Pakistan renewed their agreement not to attack each other’s nuclear installations despite a war fever.

At that time amid the biggest build-up of troops along the border since their last war in 1971, India and Pakistan carried out a New Year’s Day tradition of exchanging lists of nuclear installations.

Even as both countries say they want peace, there has been exchange of gunfire and verbal duels mainly over Kashmir.