Taking ahead the discussions between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf last month, the two countries have agreed to hold technical deliberations on starting the Amritsar-Lahore bus service next week and the Defence Secretary talks on Siachen later this month.
According to the MEA Spokesperson, the Siachen talks will be immediately followed by discussions on the Sir Creek issue towards the end of the month. He confirmed that the talks for the bus service will take place at Lahore on May 10.
The two-day discussions will also cover the proposal to have dedicated bus service to religious places in Pakistan like Nankana Sahib. Alok Rawat, Joint Secretary in the Transport Ministry will lead the Indian delegation at the talks.
The Defence Secretary level talks, which are part of the second round of talks in the composite dialogue process, will be at Islamabad on May 25-26. Similarly, the discussions on Sir Creek — for which both sides have already completed the joint survey of the horizontal line — will be held between the Surveyor Generals of the two countries at Delhi on May 27-28.
Meanwhile, a Pakistani High Commission team has been in Mumbai for the past three days looking at properties to house it consulate. Though properties in Navi Mumbai were identified after Islamabad raised concern over the expensive real estate rates in the city, the team was also shown some plots in Bandra, Santa Cruz and Andheri.