'Pak won't accept preconditions for resuming talks with India'

PAK-INDIA

Rezaul H Laskar
Islamabad, Aug 19 (PTI) Pakistan on Thursday said it was
unwilling to accept any "preconditions" for resumption of the
Indo-Pak dialogue, including New Delhi's demand for action
against terrorism emanating from its soil, claiming that the
ball was in India's court to move the process forward.
"Our position is very clear. We do not agree to any
preconditions for resuming the dialogue process between
Pakistan and India," Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit told
a weekly news briefing.
Responding to a question on Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh's call for Pakistan to act against terrorism directed
against India emanating from its soil in order to ensure
progress in bilateral parleys, Basit said Pakistan would like
to see "that our dialogue moves to a certain direction and
achieves results."
"That is our sole objective when we talk about the
dialogue process between Pakistan and India," he said.
Though the Foreign Ministers of India and Pakistan met in
Islamabad on July 15 and discussed all issues, the "two sides
were not able to map their future engagements," he said.
Basit made it clear that the ball was in India's court
and that India would have to show "flexibility" to take
forward the dialogue process that has been stalled since the
November 2008 Mumbai attacks.
"So we will see how things evolve and if India shows
some flexibility and shows its readiness to discuss all the
issues as was decided by the two Prime Ministers at Thimphu
(on the sidelines of the SAARC summit in April), I think the
two sides can meet again," Basit said.
Pakistan is ready to be "constructive and positive" and
is prepared to "achieve concrete results on all issues which
are there between our two countries, including the core
issue of Jammu and Kashmir," he said.
During his address to the nation on the occasion of
India's Independence Day on August 15, Prime Minister Singh
said his government wants to resolve all differences with
Pakistan but made it clear that dialogue cannot go far unless
terrorism emanating from Pakistan ends.
"As far as Pakistan is concerned, we expect from them
that they would not let their territory to be used for acts of
terrorism against India," he had said.
Noting that India has been emphasising this in all
discussions with Pakistan, Singh had said, "If this is not
done, we cannot progress far in our dialogue." PTI RHL
RBT


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