M A I N   N E W S

‘Milenge’, PM tells Pak minister
Tribune News Service and agencies

New Delhi, November 11
Pakistan’s Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed today implied a “meeting” with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee when he said that he had met “the senior-most leader of this country”.

However, Mr Vajpayee set the record straight when he told reporters at a Delhi airport before enplaning for Moscow that “I just shook hands (with the Pakistani minister). There was no conversation today”.

Mr Ahmed insisted on giving a message to Mr Vajpayee and said the Prime Minister responded saying “milenge” (we will meet).

Mr Ahmed had invited Mr Vajpayee to attend SAARC Information Ministers’ Conference in Islamabad next year.

Later talking to reporters, Mr Ahmed asked India to show “some understanding” and give sureties on the issue of overflights. He said he was confident that the issue would be resolved amicably. When reminded that India had categorically rejected the Pakistani demand for guarantees on overflights, he said no one knew why India put up the restrictions in the first place.

He said Islamabad had no objection to starting a ferry service from Mumbai to Karachi saying such a service was there earlier also.

Mr Ahmed said President Pervez Musharraf had a very high opinion of Prime Minister Vajpayee and was “very positive” on the peace process initiated by Mr Vajpayee. He informed that Pakistan viewed the 12 proposals made by India with pragmatism.

On a question related to the resumption of the Samjhauta rail service, he said Pakistan always favoured enhancing people-to-people contact.

Mr Ahmed said “people of Pakistan have expectations” but went on to stress that in the last 53 years a “lot of issues remain as issues” that need to be sorted.

Asked why Indian television channels were not allowed to be telecast in Pakistan and whether the ban would be lifted in the near future, the Pakistani minister said “There was no official ban on transmission of Indian television channels there and with the advent of Direct to Home (DTH) transmission no such ban can be enforced anyway. However these are all peanuts (small issues). We have to resolve the basic issue”.

Pak accuses India
K. J. M. Varma

Islamabad, November 11
Accusing India of making peace overtures “periodically” due to “pressure from international community, Pakistan today said New Delhi’s latest peace package was partly aimed at making a positive impact in some states where elections were being held in December.

“India made the peace overtures and announced confidence building measures periodically due to pressure from international community. There was a lot of pressure on India as a result of Pakistan lobbying hard,” Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri said at a news conference here.

He further said the Indian leadership announced these measuring partly because a “friendly policy towards Pakistan made a positive impact in elections in some Indian states. A positive remark on Pakistan and Muslims sells in some states while it works negatively in other provinces.”

Mr Kasuri, who just returned from a trip to the EU, the UK and Spain, made light of India’s offer of a bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad at a time when New Delhi kept accusing Islamabad of cross-border terrorism.

“On the one hand India says that Pakistan is indulging in cross-border terrorism, on the other hand they are suggesting a bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad. Probably they want terrorists to travel in style and comfort,” he said. At the same time he insisted that Pakistan could not completely seal the Line of Control. — PTI