ISLAMABAD, March 31: Pakistan’s strategy for upcoming talks with India on the Siachen issue was firmed up at a meeting chaired by President General Pervez Musharraf at his Camp Office in Rawalpindi on Friday, it is learnt.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri, Foreign Secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan and representatives of the country’s key policy-making institutions were also present on the occasion, sources told Dawn.

The foreign secretary’s departure for New Delhi was also delayed because of the meeting and he had to leave in a special aircraft directly from Islamabad to make it in time for the informal session of the Saarc standing committee on Friday night.

He was accompanied by Foreign Office spokesperson Ms Tasnim Aslam.The talks on Siachen are scheduled for April 6-7 and will take place at the Defence Ministry in Rawalpindi.

Insiders are attaching immense importance to the talks at which the defence secretaries of the two countries will be assisted by their respective directors-general of military operations.They sound optimistic about some headway towards the resolution of the more than two decades old conflict over the world’s highest battlefield. There are clear indications that the matter is being actively pursued by the two countries through the back-channel.