NEW DELHI, Jan 21: Last April’s agreement between Pakistani and Indian leaders to open their countries’ consulates in Mumbai and Karachi in January has been set back by several months, officials said on Saturday.
They pointed to the statement issued by the foreign secretaries of the two countries on Wednesday that commits them to a “resolve to simultaneously re-open their respective consulates-general in Mumbai and Karachi and to facilitate the process.”
While the Indian consulate-general, which has named Navdeep Suri as its head and which has a well established and functional building in the heart of Karachi, is ready for operations, Wednesday’s clause to start business simultaneously requires them to wait for Pakistan’s designated consul-general Jauhar Saleem to find a place to work from.
In November last year, Pakistan managed to find a decent accommodation in the posh Nariman Point district of Mumbai owned by a brother of Ashok Singhal, a leader of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. The deal fell through following protests from other occupants of the building, who pointed to the security risks and invasion of their privacy by the expected throng.
The Indian government expressed its helplessness in pushing through the deal.
According to sources, the name of Mr Saleem was cleared by the Indian foreign ministry only in the middle of the Pakistan foreign secretary’s tour.
“It took us 10 months to reach the Mittal Chambers. It could be another 10 months before we find somewhere else to accommodate our consulate-general,” remarked foreign ministry spokesperson Tasneem Aslam on Saturday. “The whole arrangement is so complicated that it could take a long time to find another property,” she told Dawn before returning to Islamabad.
