With no clear indication from India on dates of visit of PM Manmohan Singh, Pakistan conveyed to India that its President Pervez Musharraf will not attend the SAARC summit in April. As a result, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee today brought an invite only for the Pakistan PM Shaukat Aziz. While officials maintained that it was up to Pakistan to decide who it sends for the SAARC Summit, sources in Islamabad indicated that they did not want to be in a situation where Musharraf would have visited India twice without a reciprocal trip by Singh. The Pakistan message came at the last minute after no firm commitment from New Delhi that PM will visit before the SAARC Summit in April. However, India is clear that the PM’s visit will have to be substantive and refused to be drawn into speculation over this. However, this did not negatively impact the conversation between both sides on difficult issues like Kashmir. Musharraf and Mukherjee discussed the former’s proposals on Kashmir with India making it clear that any idea to share sovereignty through joint management may not be acceptable. However, as a first step it may be possible to set up joint consultative mechanisms on subjects like tourism and environment. The sources indicated that there was some convergence during the conversation on these ideas. When asked whether he can give a timeframe to a Kashmir solution. “In 60 years, several attempts have been made.but it is difficult to give a timeframe.”
