ISLAMABAD, April 25: Pakistan is awaiting a formal offer for dialogue from India after responding positively to Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s recent peace talks’ offer.

“The Government of Pakistan is now awaiting a formal talks’ offer from New Delhi after having responded positively and pro-actively to Prime Minister Vajpayee’s April 18 statement,” a senior government official told Dawn on Friday.

Commenting on Mr Vajpayee’s statement on Thursday that he was waiting for a response from Pakistan, officials here said the Indian Prime Minister made his dialogue offer publicly through the media and Pakistan had responded to this offer in a positive manner.

“Not only the President, the prime minister, the foreign minister and the Foreign Office have welcomed Mr Vajpayee’s offer for peace talks, but Pakistan has also announced that as soon as the offer is conveyed through diplomatic channels, Islamabad will immediately send a senior official to New Delhi to work out the agenda for the Indo-Pakistan talks,” a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said.

Although Mr Vajpayee’s subsequent statements have been qualified by conditions for talks such as stopping “infiltration” across the LoC and dismantling “terrorist infrastructure,” President Pervez Musharraf has responded with cautious optimism.

Analysts here attribute Mr Vajpayee’s offer to multiple factors. These range from the place of offer (occupied Kashmir) to international pressure, to Yashwant Sinha’s vitriolic statements to appearing conciliatory before the June G-8 Summit that he is due to attend as an observer.

But all this analysis notwithstanding there is a belief among official circles that Islamabad’s offer to send an emissary to work out agenda for the bilateral talks, will evoke a positive resoponse from New Delhi

Significantly, in Pakistan across the entire political divide there is a consensus on the need to resolve all outstanding issues through dialogue with India. At a recent closed-door seminar on Pakistan’s relations with India, leaders of all political parties agreed that good neighbourly relations were in the best interests of both the countries.

Meanwhile, there is renewed optimism in political and diplomatic circles that the “opening” created by the Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s talks offer and counter-offer by the Pakistani leadership will soon lead to some positive development.