ISLAMABAD, Oct 26: Pakistan is likely to respond to Indian confidence building measures (CBMs) on Monday with a set of counter proposals and additional measures that may also include an offer of a number of higher technical education scholarships and free-of-cost medical treatment to Indian citizens in Pakistan, well-placed sources told Dawn on Sunday.
The Foreign Office team has drawn up a response to the Indian offer after hectic consultations with other relevant ministries and institutions. It was submitted to President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali for their approval a day earlier, sources said.
Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar is likely to announce Pakistan’s counter proposals at the weekly news briefing at the Foreign Office in the afternoon in case the two leaders give the green light by Monday morning.
The foreign secretary will make the announcement because foreign minister Khurshid Kasuri is currently out of the country.
It has been learnt that in a counter proposal Pakistan will suggest re-sequencing of Indian CBMs in the true spirit of promoting greater people-to-people contacts. Islamabad may ask New Delhi to consider putting technical-level talks for resumption of rail links on top of the list, before the talks on air links. In its proposals India has linked talks on train service to the resumption of air links and overflights.
Pakistan is likely to remind India of the vital elements of the composite dialogue that India has overlooked in the measures proposed last week. These include dialogue on the Kashmir dispute, the Siachin issue, peace and security, Pakistan’s proposal of strategic restraint regime, and terrorism.
In the February 1999 Lahore Declaration India and Pakistan had agreed to “take immediate steps for reducing the risk for accidental and unauthorised use of nuclear weapons and discuss concepts and doctrines with a view to elaborating measures for confidence building in the nuclear and conventional fields, aimed at prevention of conflict.”
Pakistan is likely to emphasise that any number of CBMs without addressing the main issue would not be a move forward towards normalising relations between the two countries. It will argue that progress cannot be made in the absence of an atmosphere of trust and confidence between the two countries due to the core unresolved disputes.
Pakistan is also likely to make the point that confidence measures offered in the past have not delivered. A joint economic commission established between the two countries in 1987 never took off. It has not had a single meeting because of the continuing tension over the Kashmir issue.
