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Friday, July 26, 2013
Pakistan considering reviving anti-terrorism mechanism with India: FO* Foreign secretary briefs senators on Indo-Pak, Pak-Afghan ties
By Tanveer Ahmed
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is considering reviving a joint anti-terrorism mechanism with India or put in place an alternate mechanism to tackle the menace of terrorism, Foreign Affairs Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani said on Thursday.
Briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Kashmir & Gilgit-Baltistan, Jilani said that the mechanism was put in place in mid-90s and it effectively worked to deal with the terrorism issue.
However, Mumbai terrorist attacks put this arrangement in cold storage.
“Now the government is thinking about it revival or to come up with an alternative mechanism, especially in the face of attacks like Mumbai or Samjhota Express.”
Jilani also said that the government has decided in principle to restart “Composite Dialogue” with India and dates are being finalised out in this regard.
“In few weeks, we will be able to finalise the dates for this composite dialogue,” the secretary said.
He said that terrorism has been part of dialogue with India since 1997 and it is taken as a separate agenda item.
About Indian influence in Balochistan, the issue raised by Senator Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, Jilani did not rule out external factors in the province.
“Being foreign affairs secretary, I am convinced that external factors are there in Balochistan,” he added.
The committee held its meeting mainly to know about the response of government on the reported development that India was itself behind the attack on its parliament and Mumbai terror acts.
The secretary told the committee that an interim report submitted by the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi revealed that Satish Verma of CBI, who made the allegations against Indian government, has said nothing publicly so far.
“However, we are waiting for the detailed report of our high commission in this regard and then the picture would be cleared about the whole episode.”
According to the interim report, there is a tussle going on between IB and CBI, the two premier intelligence agencies of India, in which Mr Mani of the Indian Home Ministry has been used by IB to discredit IB investigations of Gujrat “fake encounters” 2004.
Jilani pointed out that this was not the first time that such revelations had been made by an Indian official.
About the Samjhauta Express incident, Jilani said, “We have sought details of investigation into this incident on and off. However, India didn’t share this information with us.” On the occasion, committee chairman Haji Adeel pointed out that Pakistan could not cash in on such revelations like India. To this, Jilani said the government had highlighted all these issues at appropriate forums.
Senator Sehar Kamran said, “We cannot ignore this development because it is very serious.”
Senator Farhatullah Babar, however, cautioned, “We should not go too far into this issue, this may slip us in a state of denial. We should push the Indians to the defensive position but we should avoid state of dentil that remained the hallmark in the past in the case of Kargil.”
On the Afghan issue, Jilani said the government has started working on border security mechanism with Afghanistan and the input is being received from relevant ministries.
“Pakistan and Afghanistan have an agreement on border security and the issue would be taken up with President Hamid Karzai when he visits Pakistan,” he added.
About US’ talks with the Talban, he told the committee that Pakistan continues to support peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan.
For this very purpose, Pakistan, Afghansitan and US formed a delisting group and a safe passage working to facilitate the reconciliation process.
“Pakistan provided the safe passage to the Talban participants to the Chantilly France meeting in December 2012 where the Talban representatives, HPC [High Peace Council], Afghan government representatives and erstwhile Northern Alliance leaders had useful discussions,” the committee was told. About Doha talks, the committee was told that “unfortunately, the positive development was marred by controversy and Pakistan with other interested countries is working to overcome this impasse and encourage the Talban to engage with High Peace Council”.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk