Pak resents India’s undiplomatic comments to media

ISLAMABAD, June 26: Pakistan today said it was a little disappointed'' at Indian Foreign Secretary Salman Haider's statement to the press...

ISLAMABAD, June 26: Pakistan today said it was “a little disappointed” at Indian Foreign Secretary Salman Haider’s statement to the press on Jammu and Kashmir. “Any attempt at this stage to pre-judge or prejudice the eventual task” of the working groups set up by the two countries to deal with outstanding issues should be “avoided,” additional secretary in Pakistan Foreign Office Khalid Salim told newspersons here.

“The Indian Foreign Secretary appears to have reiterated the oft-repeated traditional Indian position on this (Jammu and Kashmir) dispute,” Salim said, and warned that “It will be counterproductive to conduct diplomacy through the media”.

Asked whether Haider’s statement would adversely affect the future course of talks, he said, “I do not think so… We hope that talks and negotiations in working groups will continue as agreed and scheduled.”

“We are a little disappointed,” at Haider’s assertion, he said and added that during the recently concluded talks, both sides had agreed that they would not indulge in hostile propaganda against each other.

“I would not list it as hostile propaganda but it is propaganda,” he added.

Salim, who was incidentally the joint spokesman during the three-day Indo-Pak talks, conceded that during the talks each side had reiterated its recognised position.

“It is the right of each side to reiterate its position. But what we are worried about is conducting this exercise through media,” he said.

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The second round of Foreign Secretary level talks held here between June 19 to 23 saw both sides identifying eight different issues including the most contentious issue of Kashmir. They also decided to set up working groups at different levels to deal with these issues.

The next round of Foreign Secretary level talks between India and Pakistan is scheduled for September this year.

Pakistan apex court pulls up ISI

* The Supreme Court of Pakistan today pulled up the countny’s intelligence agency, ISI, for its political role and asked the government whether it intends to maintain and continue with the political cell of ISI. The two-member bench of the apex court directed the Attorney General of Paksitan to obtain a statement from the government in this regard.

The court passed this order during the hearing of the petition of Air Marshal (retd) Asghar Khan in which it was alleged that the political cell of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had distributed Rs 140 million among different political parties, including the party of the present Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during 1990 elections on the orders of the then chief of the army staff, General Aslam Beg.

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“Before deciding maintainability of the petition we would like to have specific statement from the government to know whether it intends to maintain and continue the political cell,” the bench observed. He further said that the court was not interested in the ISI’s professional matters with regard to the defence and security of the country. But, he said any intelligence agency meant for defence of the security was not permitted under the law to enter into politics.