Islamabad, October 27
Backing off at the last minute from its promise of a detailed response today to New Delhi’s latest peace package, Pakistan said it would soon give a ‘robust and constructive’ reply but criticised some Indian Ministers for projecting the proposals as a tactical move to corner Islamabad.

“The general thrust is that we are not running down the proposals. As a matter of fact we said we are going to consider these proposals very seriously. We shall give a robust response. The response will be constructive”, Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan said answering a spate of questions at a media briefing on why Pakistan was dithering to respond to India’s proposals.

Mr Khan’s comments came as a damper after media reports and foreign officials here said that Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar would formally unveil Islamabad’s response today.

The officials later clarified that the counterproposals could not be released today as they were yet to be cleared by President Pervez Musharraf. Instead, Mr Khan addressed a packed media briefing with his usual anti-India rhetoric, even indirectly calling Defence Minister, George Fernandes a ‘psychopath and war monger’.

Mr Khan derided the Indian proposals as ‘rehashed and recycled’ from the set of proposals made by Pakistan Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali in May, but said, “We are not going to reject them. Our response will be robust. We may accept some of their proposals and we may add as a matter of fact. Our response will be comprehensive.”