Spokesman Briefings

Date: 22/10/2007

Record of Press Briefing on 22 October, 2007

Opening Statement

Expert level talks on Conventional and Nuclear CBMs between Pakistan and India were held in New Delhi last week. Four rounds of Conventional CBMs and five rounds of Nuclear CBMs held thus far have contributed to the peace process. A number of CBMs have since been agreed upon and are being implemented while some proposals are currently under consideration.

During the expert level talks just held, Pakistan 's delegations emphasized that the improvement in mutual confidence between the two countries should be leveraged to make sincere and concerted efforts for the resolution of outstanding disputes. A peaceful settlement of these disputes, in particular the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, will lead to the beginning of a new era of mutual trust and cooperation in South Asia .

Today, second meeting of the Pakistan-India Joint Anti Terrorism Mechanism is taking place in New Delhi . Pakistan is cooperating internationally in the fight against terrorism. The Joint Anti Terrorism Mechanism with India focuses on cooperation between the two countries in order to prevent acts of terrorism and help bring perpetrators of such heinous acts to justice.

Question/Answer Session

As Pakistan-India relations remained cloudy despite years of negotiations, what could be done to clear them and to strengthen mutual relations on a long term basis, the Spokesman said:

There are many ways to answer this question. I think there are three interrelated elements, which if addressed and established in the region can lead to lasting peace and positive relations between Pakistan and India for a long time to come. First and foremost step is conflict resolution, followed by nuclear restraint and stability and lastly a conventional balance between the two countries. If we have these three interrelated elements in place, positive relationship between the two countries could be established on a long term basis.

Asked if the Government would give serious consideration to the former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's demand that it should seek assistance from the international community to probe the Karachi blasts as she especially mentioned that she had been in touch with US and UK in this regard, and whether they or any other countries had offered such assistance, the Spokesman said:

We have seen the US offer in the press. I am not aware of the British offer. The former Prime Minister mentioned only last evening that she wanted to involve external agencies in the probe. This is for the Government of Pakistan to decide but it is too early to comment on this suggestion. My counterpart from the concerned Ministry will be in a better position to comment on this.

Asked if the US offer of assistance came through the Foreign Office or whether it was just through press statements, the Spokesman said:

It did not come through the Foreign Office. We saw it in the media.

When, it was asserted that Pakistan appeared very complacent on its relations with India while the Indian response to Pakistan 's concessions was very ambiguous, the Spokesman said:

The Composite Dialogue is a very positive process. Pakistan-India relations were never as good as they are today. This is a visible development. There are no two view on this. I think we are moving in the right direction.

As regards the speed, diplomacy traditionally moves slowly, as they say diplomacy moves with glacial speed. Secondly, this is a very complex relationship and keeping in mind the complexity we should not expect results overnight.

Asked, if Pakistan would bring up the topic of alleged Indian involvement in the tribal areas at the current meeting of the Joint Anti Terror Mechanism talks, the Spokesman said:

Pakistan has raised a number of issues in New Delhi today. The meeting is continuing even as we talk. However, we are not making the detailed agenda public. But I can tell you that all issues of our concern are on the agenda.

Asked for comments on the recent Indian statements, specially one by their Prime Minister, where they held the domestic instability of Pakistan responsible for the slowing down of the peace process, the Spokesman said:

Domestic situation either in Pakistan or India has nothing to do with the Composite Dialogue. If the ruling alliance in New Delhi is destabilized at the moment, it does not mean the dialogue would slow down. Secondly there is no instability in Pakistan . We are in an election year. Election campaign has practically started and so it is a very active year in terms of domestic political scene.

So first of all, the domestic situation would not affect the Composite Dialogue process. Secondly, in last four days we had three meetings which I think is fairly good speed. The dialogue is slow when it comes to the core issue of Kashmir , which is what we have been saying all along. We would like to speed up that aspect of the Composite Dialogue process.

When his attention was drawn to the recent kidnapping of a Japanese student in Iran and his comments were sought in response to a recent statement of the Iranian Foreign Office where it was alleged that the kidnapped student had been taken from Iran to Pakistan by his abductors, the Spokesman said:

We have seen the media reports on Saturday and we tried to find out more about it. Iranian Government has not raised this issue with us. The Japanese student was kidnapped in Kerman which is inside Iran , some 500 Km from the Pakistan-Iran border.

Now we read in the media that the abductors have taken him away from an area over 500 Km deep inside Iran to Pakistan . Having said this, however, I will add if there is any such situation, Pakistan Government will cooperate fully with the Iranian and the Japanese Governments and if provided a lead will act on it instantly.

Asked how Pakistan could express satisfaction and be happy with the state of affairs with India at a time when India had been occupying Siachin for the last 23 years, Kashmir for 60 years and Kargil for last 8 years and there was no substantial progress in bilateral relations and whether this implied a compromise on major issues of national interest, the Spokesman said:

I think the point I made was very clear. My predecessor said it time and again that there was slow progress on the core issue and we stand by what she said. Secondly when you look at the situation in 2002 when one million troops were facing each other eyeball to eyeball and compare it with today, you do see a change. Do you see that kind of tension now? No. So there is an improvement in the situation. The dialogue process, which is going on now, is important for the two countries and the region.

Asked with reference to Condoleezza Rice's phone call to Benazir Bhutto whether this was normal for foreign leaders to directly contact Pakistani opposition political leaders or whether such calls had to be routed through the Foreign Office, the Spokesman said:

We are a free country. Such calls happen often. There are no restrictions on any political leader receiving calls from a foreign leader.

Asked for comments published in the Christian Science Monitor recently which alleged the incapability of Pakistani law enforcing agencies to handle the problems in the tribal areas, the Spokesman said:

The problem is a number of these reports are based on very limited knowledge of the tribal region. Since few has thorough knowledge of trible areas, when they write they show their lack of understanding

There are some elements in trible areas who are creating a law and order situation but they are on the run. Two trible agencies have problems not the whole of FATA. I am not saying this is a small problem but claming that we are incapable of taking care of it is wrong and shows lack of understand of the ground realities.

Asked in a supplementary question that the Government was not allowing independent media to go and investigate in these areas, the Spokesman said:

The Spokesman for political affairs will respond to that. It is not Foreign Office's subject.

Asked if Condoleezza Rice had called the President or the Foreign Minister as she had called Benazir Bhutto, the Spokesman said:

To my information, she had not called the President or the Prime Minister.

Asked as a follow up to the kidnapping of the Japanese student, that there had been reports earlier too about Iranian rebels acting from Balochistan and if there was any information about them, the Spokesman said:

We had seen some media reports some time ago but we have no firm information on this.

Asked if there was any danger to the project as the IPI meeting had ended inconclusively and India seemed to have gone on a back foot, the Spokesman said:

The meeting is still going on at the Marriott hotel. A few issues are on the table and are being discussed. Probably, today in the evening, will have some news; hopefully a good news.

Asked if the recent statement by the US Principal Political Officer in Lahore where he allegedly said that there should be a balance between the powers of the President and the Prime Minister, could be viewed as interference in the internal matters of Pakistan , the Spokesman said:

We have seen the statement in the media and are trying to confirm it. If he has made this statement we will take it up formally with the US authorities. I would like to add that if he had made this statement, it is against diplomatic norms. Diplomats are not suppose to make statements like these about the countries where they are posted.

Asked to clarify the ground position about the discrepancy whereby the major ruling political party of Pakistan had expressed the hope that elections would be postponed while the international community had contrary expectations, the Spokesman said:

This is not an area with which the Foreign Office deals but I think the Government statements are very clear in this regards that elections and the processes leading to them would not be disrupted and they would be held on time.

Asked for comments when his attention was drawn to a report in the Hindustan Times which alleged that 15000 Kashmiri refugee who had crossed over from Indian occupied Kashmir wanted to cross back to India because they were feeling marginalized, the Spokesman said:

The report is partly correct. There are Kashmiris who have crossed the LoC because of atrocities committed in the Indian occupied Kashmir . However, the second part of your statement is incorrect.