Pak assures seriousness in 26/11 probe; wants dialogue with India

"Both Pakistan and India are today at a stage unfortunately where there is no dialogue between them....If we are seated across the table and agree to disagree, even that is an improvement over the current state of affairs," Pakistan High Commissioner to India Shahid Malik said at a book release function here yesterday.

Maintaining that Pakistan had made "repeated requests" to India to start the dialogue process and was still waiting for a positive response, he said, "I was present in Sharm-el- Sheikh (Egypt) in July, where it was agreed in a statement-- where the two Prime Ministers were also present-- that dialogue is the only way forward."
He said it was also mentioned in that joint statement that investigations would be delinked from the composite dialogue process. "The term delink was used...," Malik said.
"Both (dialogue and probe) have their own importance. Investigations are being conducted into that very unfortunate incident, but at the same time, the dialogue process will not be linked, that was part of that statement," he added.
Claiming that investigations were on into the Mumbai terror attacks, Malik said, "So far as investigations are concerned, it is continuing. The Government of Pakistan is seriously pursuing all the leads that have been provided by India."
Malik said his country was also conducting its own probe into the 26/11 terror attacks, other than the one being done on the leads given by India.
He also stressed that both countries should look forward to improve their relationship and recited an Urdu couplet to drive home his point -- "Wo daur bhi dekha hai, tariq ki ankhon ne, Lamhon ne khata ki thi, Sadiyon ne saja payi." (History has been a witness to those junctures when a moment's mistake led to decades of suffering).
"There is a message for all of us in this... Sooner we learn from it, to me, it would be good for all of us," the Pakistan High Commissioner said.