ISLAMABAD, March 29 Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Monday held consultative sessions with former senior diplomats on relations with India seeking suggestions for overcoming the logjam in the bilateral ties.

“The meeting was specifically meant for discussion on India,” one of the participants said even though the Foreign Office tried to give an impression that the exchange pertained to broader foreign policy issues, including the recently-held US-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue, the upcoming Pakistan-European Union summit and relations with India.

The consultations that took place in the backdrop of Foreign Minister Qureshi's upcoming visit to Riyadh on April 2, where he is likely to hear from the Saudi leadership about their discussions with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the strained India-Pakistan relations. Besides, there are indications from Delhi that Indian External Affairs Secretary Nirupama Rao was desirous of visiting Islamabad to carry forward the engagement at foreign secretaries' level.

A statement from the spokesman's office said the foreign minister stressed that Pakistan genuinely wanted to normalise its relations with India on the basis of sovereign equality and mutual respect.

“It is necessary that our two countries revert back to a meaningful and structured dialogue process as this is the only way forward.”

The sense emerging from the meeting was that Pakistan should remain supportive of dialogue and engagement, but shouldn't look to be too keen for engagement with India.

“There was unanimity of views that we needed to wait till India was wholeheartedly ready for re-engagement and resumption of Composite Dialogue,” a source said.

More, importantly, the source added, it was generally agreed that 'the past mistake of back-channel diplomacy' should not be repeated.

It was interesting to note that Riaz Muhammad Khan, who has been designated as Islamabad's pointman for back-channel negotiations with India, was present at the meeting.