ISLAMABAD, March 25: India and Pakistan are keeping alive back channel diplomacy to monitor the peace process through the interlocutors who were instrumental in the Jan 6 statement concluded between President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in Islamabad on the sidelines of the 12th Saarc summit.

India's National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra and the Secretary-General of the yet to be formed National Security Council, Mr Tariq Aziz, who led and coordinated rounds of behind-the-scene negotiations that made possible the Musharraf-Vajpayee meeting on Jan 5, have kept the channels of communication open.

Mr Mishra and Mr Aziz had met in Lahore recently, Dawn learnt through informed sources. Mr Mishra, Mr Vajpayee's confidant and point man on Pakistan, who was in Lahore till early this week on the pretext of witnessing the fourth One-Day cricket match between Pakistan and India, held a detailed meeting with President Musharraf's most trusted aide Mr Tariq Aziz.

"Mr Mishra's visit was more than just a goodwill gesture. He was in Lahore for some important official engagements which included a meeting with Mr Tariq Aziz," the sources said.

Diplomatic watchers say Mr Mishra is no great fan of cricket and that he merely took the cover of cricket to exchange notes with Mr Tariq Aziz on important bilateral and regional developments.

Mr Mishra's official engagements were kept under wraps and the Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan insisted that Mr Mishra was in Lahore "just to watch the cricket match."

On Monday the Foreign Office spokesman said at his weekly briefing that Mr Mishra "informally met the foreign minister" who was also in Lahore to watch the cricket match.

Incidentally, at the Lahore National Stadium, Mr Mishra also met Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar and Director-General of South Asia Jalil Abbas Jilani, who led the deputy foreign secretary level talks with India in Islamabad last month.

Reportedly, Mr Mishra also advocated the opening up of the Indian Consulate in Karachi with one of the officials pointing to the difficulties of visa seekers.

Apparently, both Mr Mishra and Mr Aziz stayed at the Lahore State Guest House where they reviewed progress on the post-Jan 6 developments away from the public eye. This was their first meeting after the Islamabad Saarc summit.

The timing of the meeting was significant as it took place soon after US Secretary of State Colin Powell's visit to the region and his important announcement in Islamabad about the Bush administration's decision to designate Pakistan as a "major non- Nato ally."

Also, it was held just days before Mr Advani's second round of talks with the APHC leadership and weeks before the important Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service talks.

Mr Mishra's visit also seems to have cleared some bad air created by President Musharraf's straight talking on the Kashmir issue during the India Today conclave held in New Delhi early this month, which was beamed live via satellite.

Mr Mishra is a retired Indian foreign service officer and also Vajpayee's principal secretary. While known to be Mr Vajpayee's closest confidant, he also enjoys full trust of deputy Indian Prime Minister L.K. Advani. Mr Mishra has been described as the "principal fashioner and implementer" of India's major foreign policy and strategic decisions from 1998.

While the process of the composite dialogue between India and Pakistan is currently proceeding at the bureaucratic level, the recent Mishra-Aziz meeting indicates commitment at the highest political level on both sides to take forward the peace talks decisively.

Also, it conveys a conscious effort to keep in tact the positive environment in which the India-Pakistan peace talks are progressing. In a major breakthrough on Jan 6 the two sides agreed to initiate the process of composite dialogue that broke down in July 2001.