NEW DELHI, Dec 7: Indian and Pakistan officials on Tuesday began their widely awaited talks on a proposed bus link across the Line of Control in Kashmir with both sides showing a yawning gap in their positions that could be too wide to bridge without higher political intervention, official sources said.
And a political nudge did seem to come although indirectly and in a different context when Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh received the visiting Punjab Chief Minister Pervez Ilahi and told him that New Delhi was very keen to make a success of its ongoing dialogue with Islamabad.
"There was warmth and spontaneity and sincerity from both sides in the meeting," an official source said. "It was a cheerful bit of news on an otherwise lacklustre day."
At the bust talks, Pakistan Foreign Ministry's point person for India Jalil Abbas Jilani and his Indian counterpart Arun Singh did most of the explaining of their respective positions although the meeting involved representatives of surface transport departments too.
Pakistan proposed that the bus service should be limited to Kashmiri citizens alone and, moreover, they should be allowed to travel without passports or visas. The Indian side, which saw this suggestion as fraught with unacceptable political implications, insisted on the use of passports for Kashmiris as an identification support.
It proposed that instead of visas Kashmiris could be issued travel permits at the immigration check posts. Their applications however would be first vetted by the high commissions in Islsmbad or New Delhi as the case may be.
The Pakistani objection here was that Kashmiris wanting to travel thus would be highly inconvenienced since they would first have to go to the respective high commissions for attestations before being approved for the travel permits. India was believed to be ready though to set up visa camps in Kashmir if Pakistan too agreed to do so a prospect that seemed remote.
India also wants the service to be available to non-Kashmiris. This is partly because India does not accept any difference among its citizens who according to New Delhi include Kashmiris.
About Pakistan's objection to the use of passports, the Indian side argued that people from either side were already using passports and visa. The two sides will meet on Wednesday to draft a joint statement, which barring any dramatic breakthrough is expected to recommend the issue to be taken up by the foreign secretaries who are scheduled to meet soon.
