Pak FS may travel to US Saturday; to hold talks with Rao

Rezaul H Laskar

Islamabad, Sept 18 (PTI) Pakistan Foreign Secretary
Salman Bashir is expected to travel to the US over the weekend
for talks with his Indian counterpart Nirupama Rao on the
sidelines of the UN General Assembly session though a date for
their meeting is yet to be finalised.

Bashir and other senior officials of the Foreign
Office are expected to leave for New York during the weekend,
official sources said.

"The delegation could leave on Saturday," a source
told PTI.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi recently said
that the two Foreign Secretaries are expected to meet ahead of
a meeting of the Foreign Ministers of India and Pakistan on
September 26.

Though Qureshi has said he is not expecting any "major
breakthrough" in his talks with his Indian counterpart S M
Krishna, Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit did not rule out
the possibility of a positive outcome to the talks next week.

Pakistan will approach the talks with an "open mind",
Basit said.

"When we approach the talks with an open mind, there
is the possibility of something positive coming out of the
meeting," he added. MORE PTI