NEW DELHI, Sept 23: India on Tuesday proposed to Pakistan an increase in the staff strength of the respective High Commissions in the two countries.

At present there are 47 diplomatic and other staff members in each country.

India had proposed the strength to be increased to 55, an addition of eight more staff members, in each country, an External Affairs Ministry statement said.

The Indian move followed Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali’s May 6 statement seeking New Delhi to take confidence-building measures which include, among others, restoration of full diplomatic staff in respective High Commissions.

The staff strength of the respective High Commissions, which existed before Dec 2001, was 110. The present skeleton staff in the High Commission is unable to cope with a deluge of visa applications, especially after the resumption of the Delhi-Lahore bus service.

Pakistan has also been informed that a visit by a Pakistan team of the Indus Waters Commission to Baglihar project in occupied Kashmir would be organized in October this year in response to a request from Islamabad for a site visit.

Pak-Indus Water Commissioner Syed Jamait Ali Shah, during his visit to New Delhi in April this year, had urged the Indian team to arrange a site visit to the Baglihar project in occupied Kashmir by Sept 30 this year.

Pakistan had voiced its concerns over the design of the construction of the Baglihar hydropower project on the Chenab River, saying it was in violation of provisions of the Indus Water Treaty, 1960.

However, sources at the Indian Union Water Resources Ministry here, in response to Pakistan’s apprehensions about the project, had stated: “We are sure that our construction parameters are well within the provisions of the treaty.”—APP