Islamabad, February 8
Needling India which has proposed Foreign Secretary-level talks, Pakistan has said it has not knelt before New Delhi which has been forced to return to the negotiating table.

"India, which had broken off the composite dialogue process and spoken of severing contacts with Pakistan, has come to us and sought talks. We never kneeled before them and did not bow to their pressure," Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told a gathering in his hometown of Multan in Punjab province yesterday.

He, however, said that Pakistan will go ahead with the talks because it has a "strong case" on several outstanding issues, including Kashmir and sharing of river waters.

The minister's remarks come close on the heels of India proposing talks between Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir suggesting either February 18 or 25 for holding the meeting. The talks were suspended after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

Qureshi claimed India had tried to isolate Pakistan diplomatically but had failed due to the "effective" policies pursued by Islamabad. Pakistan will not tolerate any pressure and will protect its interests, he asserted.

Qureshi will chair several meetings this week to assess the Indian proposal and finalise an agenda for the talks. The minister recalled that he was in New Delhi at the time of the Mumbai attacks in November 2008.

"I still stand by the stance Pakistan had taken at that time," he said. Pakistan had condemned the 26/11 attacks.

"Our stance was principled and based on truth," he said, adding that Pakistan itself had faced several challenging situations during the past two years. — PTI