Pak to hold talks with India, without hope of breakthrough

Islamabad, Jul 10:Pakistan will hold talks with India on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Egypt next week with an open mind, but without much hope of a major breakthrough in view of an existing ''dicey'' situation.

''The situation is quite dicey ... signals from India are not particularly positive,'' Dawn newspaper today quoted diplomatic sources as saying.

Foreign secretaries of the two countries will also meet on July 14 and their prime ministers the following day.

The secretaries’ talks will be crucial and 'set the tone' for the prime ministers’ meeting.

Although there is no fixed agenda for the meetings, Pakistan is looking forward to resumption of the composite dialogue while India wants the talks linked to the issue of terrorism.

Pakistan has tried to address Indian concerns ahead of the talks by filing an appeal in the Supreme Court against the release of Jamaatud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed and by filling the vacant post of a judge in Anti-Terrorism Court-II, which was trying the five accused of the Mumbai terror strikes.

But the move has not satisfied India. Instead of acknowledging that Pakistan was making progress in the Mumbai terror probe, senior Indian diplomats and their leadership have accused Pakistan of sending ''confusing signals,'' the sources said .

''The Indians have been telling us that they wanted to see the prosecution of the accused in Mumbai attacks, but our contention is that this would take quite some time and that their position is untenable,'' the sources added.

Diplomatic sources here, however, still think that the Gilani-Singh meeting can make some progress. ''Politicians are capable of pulling off surprises,'' they added.

UNI