Pak: No unilateral pullout from LoC

She also virtually ruled out any chances of Pakistan meeting the demand of the visiting relatives of PoWs to investigate the evidence they collected about the existence of 54 missing Indian military personnel of the 1971 war in Pakistan prisons. Answering questions relating to the pleas made by the 14-member delegation of relatives which is currently visiting various jails, Aslam said Pakistan has accorded an “unprecedented gesture” without receiving the “same level” of gesture from the other side. The relatives, who have visited about seven prisons so far, asked for permission to go to Attock jail and also sought audience with Musharraf. Indian officials said both have not materialised so far.

“We have done the maximum we could do…As many as 500 civilian prisoners are languishing in the Indian jails. Many of them completed their prison sentences. We still have to get consular access in many cases. We get appeals from desperate mothers everyday… It is a difficult issue,” Aslam said. She however, made no reference to the release of 93,000 Pakistan PoWs by India.

The spokesperson added that Pakistan would join the Global Initiative on Combating Nuclear Terrorism at its next meeting in Almaty. She said Pakistan has been in consultation with this Initiative ever since it was launched as it supported its objectives. Pakistan had maintained that it should be given the same exemptions that members of the Nuclear Club, known as P-5, enjoy and Islamabad’s concerns in this regard have been taken care of, she said.