ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday urged India to come clean on multiple facets of the Mumbai tragedy and urged it to expose those responsible for acts of commission and omission transparently. Responding to a statement by Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee at Lok Sabha, Pakistan warned that the reality of Mumbai attacks were increasingly getting mixed with compulsions of domestic politics in India.

Mukherjee told Lok Sabha, a day after Pakistan’s response to the Indian dossier,

“Authorities in Pakistan have to choose the kind of relationship that they want with India in future; much depends on actions in the Mumbai case reaching their logical conclusion.”

The spokesman said Pakistan has so far refrained from commenting on Indian internal affairs. “We have acted with a high sense of responsibility and exercised restraint,” he added. “Mukherjee’s remarks are essentially a rehash of the standard Indian line against Pakistan and in complete variance with the imperatives of a serious approach to uncover the “full facts” relating to Mumbai attacks and bringing the perpetrators to justice,” the foreign office statement said.

The Spokesman said “we have a distinct sense that the reality of the Mumbai terrorist attacks, which were whole-heartedly condemned by the international community and Pakistan, is getting increasingly mixed with compulsions of domestic politics in India.”

Mukherjee told the parliament that India will continue to review the situation, including Pakistan’s responses “and will take further steps that we deem necessary to protect our people.”

The foreign office spokesman said “the Government of Pakistan expects India to come clean on the multiple facets of the Mumbai tragedy and expose the names of persons and entities in India who were also responsible for acts of commission and omission in a transparent manner.” The spokesman said Pakistan has offered India a hand of cooperation. “We do so in the interest of regional peace and security,” the statement said.

KOLKATA: Indian Minister for External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee has said that a “disinformation campaign” had launched against Islam by terming it as religion of terrorism. Addressing a ceremony to mark 200 years of the Bengali translation of the Quran on Monday here, he said that the term ‘Islamic terrorism’ is “unacceptable”.

Mukharjee said, “Not only is this expression Islamic terrorism unacceptable, there should be protest against it. Islam has nothing to do with terrorism. The patriotism of Muslims is no less than others in the country”.

He said deliberate attempts were being made to vitiate the atmosphere but Islam, which preached love and communal harmony, was against terrorism. “Terrorism is against humanity.” He said universal brotherhood was the basis of Islam which attracted people all over the world to it.

Mukharjee said that after 9/11, people in Europe and US coined the phrase ‘Islamic terrorism’ and tried to project it was a conflict between Islamic and Christian civilisations. Challenging those who described Islam as a religion of fundamentalists, Mukharjee asked them to show which part of the Holy Book encouraged fundamentalism.-SANA

SRINAGAR: Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s five-day trip to India from Wednesday has now been upgraded to an official sojourn. The visit touted earlier as a his private rendezvous is now full of official engagements where both sides are scheduled to review bilateral dialogue process and to arrive at some decision on the issue of Sir Creek and the opening of communication, transaction and banking facilities across the LoC.

Besides holding formal discussions with his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee immediately after arriving here on Wednesday evening at Hyderabad House, the visiting Minister is also scheduled to meet a host of Indian leaders. A meeting with the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh is also on cards.

Both ministers will travel to Chandigarh on Thursday to attend a day-long programme on the subject of cooperative development, peace and security in South Asia organized by the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID). An interactive session has also been planned where they will face questions from the audience.

On Friday Qureshi is scheduled to return Delhi before visiting Dargah of Khawaja Moinduddin Chesti in Ajmeer via Jaipur. In the evening he will address Indian women press corps at the Women Press Club. Before departing to Pakistan on Saturday, he will interact with the leaders of Left Parties and top BJP leaders Jaswant Singh and L. K. Advani separately at their residences.

A Pakistani diplomat said Pakistan attaches high importance to the peace process with India as both share common objectives in many spheres to give a good life and bright future to their people. He said relations between the two nuclear neighbors have improved but all tracts of the peace process have not shown identical progress as he said the disputes like Kashmir, Siachen and Sir Creek continue to linger on.

Both sides are expected to give a much needed political push to the issue of Sir Creek. The officials of both countries are meeting in Delhi on December 2 to take a final call. A diplomat here confirmed that resolution of this issue was at an advanced stage which pertains to demarcation of borders.

“We are coming around to a point of view espoused by experts of both the sides who have suggested certain formula. It will be adopted at political level and then at expert level. Mid-stream border is an option. The area has been surveyed. The pillars that demarcated the border in 1941 have disappeared. So they took a fresh look at the border. We will be able to resolve this issue,” the diplomat requesting anonymity said here.-SANA

MULTAN: Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Sunday said that the political wing of the ISI was disbanded and termed it a positive development. While talking to the media persons at the local airport Sunday, Qureshi pointed out that ISI is a precious national institution and it wants to focus fully on counter-terrorism activities.

He said that the government was making all out efforts for repatriation of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui from US to Pakistan and expressed the hope that these efforts would bear fruit. He announced that her son has already been brought back to Pakistan.

He dispelled the impression that agriculture income tax was among the conditions for IMF bailout plan, neither was it a condition nor this tax was under consideration these days, FM said adding that this tax was a provincial subject. He said that IMF package was meant to fill the immediate resource gap and to pursue an economic stabilization plan. He reiterated resolve to improve ties with India saying that his visit to the neighboring country will help remove misunderstandings between the two countries.

He said that he would meet his counterpart Pranab Mukherjee and Indian leadership and bilateral issues will be discussed during the interaction. He hoped that his visit to India will help bridge the gulf and end trust deficit between the two countries and will prove fruitful in strengthening ties with India.
Foreign Minister said that it is our desire that both countries should live like friendly neighbors. He said that he will talk to the Indian leadership on water issue and added that Kashmir issue, already being a part of the composite dialogue between the two countries, will also be discussed.

About the Indian cricket team’s forthcoming tour to Pakistan, he said that the government wishes that Indian cricket squad should visit Pakistan. He added that government wants to improve people-to-people contact with India and exchange of delegations such as cultural delegations and sports teams will help improve relationships. He said that intellectuals, authors and sports persons of the two countries should have frequent interaction through exchange of delegations. Chief operating officer PCB Saleem Altaf said that Chairman Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Ijaz Butt will visit to India this month.

To a question, Qureshi categorically said there was no possibility of martial law in the country stating that the government, the parliament and the armed forces have unanimity of views on national issues. People may have this view but we do not agree with it, FM said adding that we are moving forward to combat challenges with consultations and understanding.

Mehmood Qureshi disclosed that after the Jan 13-16 expert level meeting scheduled to be held in Islamabad, he will invite FoDP Foreign Ministers to Pakistan in February next to move ahead with the plan to combat economic and security challenges confronting Pakistan.

About the IMF bailout package that is expected to be approved on Nov 24, Shah Mehmood Qureshi said its approval will pave the way for more assistance from other international financial institutions like World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB), Islamic Development Bank besides the Friends of Democratic Pakistan (FoDP) Group and other countries.

It was interesting and heartening to note that our home-grown plan prepared by 16-member panel of country’s economic experts headed by Dr. Hafeez Pasha that has also been discussed by the federal cabinet and the talks with IMF had similarities in approach and experts believe it was the best suitable option Pakistan could avail under the given conditions, FM said.

He said that Rupee was gaining strength against dollar and capital flight has stopped and hoped that capital flight phenomenon will soon witness a reverse trend with the arrival of foreign remittances. FM said that an expert level meeting will be held in Islamabad from Jan 13 to Jan 16 during which projects will be identified and discussed in four sectors with the assistance promised by FoDP in its Nov 17 meeting in Abu Dhabi.-SANA