Pak proposes date for talks

India and Pakistan may resume the dialogue process in August as two sets of dates, proposed by Islamabad, are now being considered by New Delhi.

Islamabad has suggested August 27-28 for secretary-level talks on Tulbul and Wullar barrage involving water and power secretaries from the two countries.

Also, it suggested holding talks on the Sir Creek maritime boundary dispute on September 16-17.

A solution was thought to be on the horizon till the entire dialogue process came to a halt due to beheading of an Indian soldier on the line of control earlier this year.

“Proposals for dates from Pakistan have been received last week. Both India and Pakistan are in discussion through diplomatic channels to identify mutually convenient dates for the remaining secretary-level talks of the third round,” official sources said here on Sunday.

The third round commenced last September when commerce secretaries of India and Pakistan met in Islamabad, but was halted due to the tension caused by the beheading of Indian soldiers.

India has also “in principle” agreed to a meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September, sources said.

While Pakistan will host talks on water dispute and Sir Creek issue, besides a meeting of the foreign secretaries on the Kashmir dispute, India would host the home secretary-level meeting and defence secretary-level talks on the Siachen Glacier.

A meeting between the two foreign ministers to review the overall progress of the bilateral dialogue process may also be in the offing. Pakistan hopes that a range of conversations on various issues in the next few months might set the agenda for a high-level political engagement either by the year-end or early next year.

India, however, is still dithering because of Islamabad’s inability to deliver on two main demands–speedy trial of the accused in the 26/11 attacks case and granting most favoured nation status to India–and was conveyed to Sharif’s special envoy Shahryar Khan who visited New Delhi recently.

Pakistani proposals were being examined and necessary approvals for the mutually convenient time slots were being obtained, the sources said.

According to a Pakistan daily, The Nation, officials from both sides are also working on dates for meetings of the eight technical groups of the Pakistan-India Joint Commission.