Pakistan on Thursday said it will approach upcoming bilateral meetings with India, including one between the two prime ministers, with an 'open mind', in the hope for resumption of the composite dialogue, which have been stalled after the 26/11 attacks. The foreign secretaries will hold talks before a planned meeting between Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh.
After vacillating on India's offer of $ 5 million aid for victims of Pakistan's devastating floods for over two weeks, Islamabad has decided not to directly accept the assistance and instead asked that it should be routed through the United Nations.
The Indian government has not yet been formally asked to start supplying the aid and the Foreign Office spokesman said the matter is still being discussed. "We are working on it and the decision will soon be made public," spokesman Abdul Basit said.
A Filipino militant and a bomb- making expert, most-wanted by the United States, was killed in an American drone strike in Pakistan's restive South Waziristan region on January 14.
Pakistan on Sunday junked as "rubbish" a report that elite US troops were ready to counter any move to hijack the country's nuclear arsenal and said it was "a figment of the imagination".
Pakistan wanted to evolve a roadmap to discuss bilateral issues with India during the recent foreign minister-level talks but the other side was not prepared to do so, its Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said on Sunday.
Pakistan made it clear that it would not allow US or other foreign troops to conduct operations on its soil, saying such a move would amount to crossing the "red lines" set by the country for cooperating in the war against terrorism.
Pakistan on Tuesday expressed disappointment over India's reaction to the Lahore high court quashing cases registered under the anti-terror law against 26/11 mastermind and Lashkar-e-Tayiba founder Hafiz Saeed, saying that questioning decisions made by the country's independent judiciary was "not a wise step".
Pakistan on Thursday reacted in a guarded manner to the death sentence handed down to its national Ajmal Kasab by Mumbai court for his involvement in the 26/11 attacks, saying its legal experts would study the detailed judgement.
Ahead of Thursday's talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, Pakistan has reportedly indicated that it would like the discussions to be a follow up of the talks held at the Egyptian resort of Sharm-el-Sheikh in July last year.
Pakistan on Thursday said that the information provided so far by India on the Mumbai attacks was not enough for it to take legal action against outlawed Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Mohammed Saeed. "It needs to be underlined that the dossiers and information received from India apropos Saeed are not really enough ... to proceed legally as is being expected," Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit told a weekly news briefing in Islamabad.
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is unlikely to meet his Indian counterpart Dr. Manmohan Singh in Washington, where they are scheduled to attend the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington on April 12 and 13.
Pakistan on Thursday did not confirm or deny reports that it handed over a dossier to New Delhi on the alleged Indian involvement in the unrest in Balochistan, saying the issue involved intelligence matters which cannot be discussed in public. Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said the matter had been adequately covered by the joint statement issued after the meeting between Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh.
Pakistan has termed as baseless the United States' allegations, regarding the presence of culprits involved in terror attacks in the US and India, living in Pakistan.Reacting to the statement given by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, alleging that the perpetrators of the attack on the World Trade Centre in New York and the terror attack on Mumbai are in Pakistan, Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said these culprits were not in Pakistan but in Afghanistan instead.
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani will meet Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt on July 16, the Pakistan Foreign Office has said.Pakistan's Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said that the foreign secretaries of both countries would also meet during the summit.
Pakistan on Thursday said the government of its Punjab province will file an appeal against the Lahore High Court order releasing banned Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, who was placed under house arrest in December last year, in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks.
Pakistan on Thursday said it is fully capable of safeguarding its security in the face of induction of new technology and weapon system by India, including an Israeli-made spy satellite launched earlier this week.
With no let up in drone attacks by the United States-led coalition forces in its tribal belt, Pakistan on Thursday insisted that such strikes were counter-productive to the fight against terrorism and extremism.
Nearly three weeks after the Indo-Pak joint statement in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Pakistan today insisted that there was no change in its foreign policy and raked up its demand for an "independent Kashmir" for "long-lasting" peace in South Asia.
'We do want resumption of the dialogue with India because we sincerely believe that it is in the interest of our region. Pakistan has been insisting that as a 'responsible country' it believes that disengagement is counter-productive,' The Dawn quoted Basit, as saying.
Pakistan today said it has not received a formal request from India or Interpol to hand over 22 suspects in the Mumbai terror attacks even as it insisted it will take action against its nationals on its own soil.
Commenting on the Narcotics Control Bureau investigation of a drug case, related to actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death case, Raut said, "The probe of the case started about murder and suicide. Now, narcotics came into the case. Nobody knows where will it go. It is under NCB's jurisdiction to summon anyone to join the probe."
Pakistan on Thursday claimed that it has not received any official notification from India regarding the request for a Pakistani lawyer by Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone terrorist captured alive during the Mumbai attacks."We will see when it comes. We would not like to jump the gun," Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit told reporters at the weekly briefing in Islamabad, replying to a question on Kasab's request for a Pakistani lawyer, to represent him in the trial in India.
A day after its powerful army expressed "serious concern" over some of the provisions in the US economic aid bill, the Pakistan government said on Thursday that the legislation is "not an ideal document" and that it is not binding on it to accept clauses laid in it.
Janjua will replace incumbent foreign secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, who will be taking charge as Pakistan's new ambassador to the US, Foreign Office said on Monday night.
Union minister Kiren Rijiju on Monday said that the government was hopeful a team of National Investigation Agency will soon visit Pakistan to gather evidence in connection with the Pathankot terror attack.
In a tit-for-tat action, Pakistan on Friday summoned Indian Deputy High Commissioner in Islamabad, hours after India called in the Pakistani envoy in New Delhi to lodge a strong protest over a court order to release LeT terrorist and Mumbai attack mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.
Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit on Monday met Kashmir separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and briefed him about the issues discussed between India and Pakistan during Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar's visit to Islamabad.
The Maharashtra government on Friday filed an appeal in the Bombay high court challenging the acquittal of the five accused in the Ghatkopar bomb blast case.
Setting the terms for revival of the composite dialogue process with the Modi government, Pakistan on Monday made it clear that India should not shy away from dealing with "contentious" issues like Jammu and Kashmir and not lay down any preconditions for talks.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday discussed with top officials, including National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, the security situation in the country, including the tension at National Institute of Technology Srinagar and the denial of permission to the National Investigation Agency team to visit Pakistan in connection with the Pathankot attack.
The government feels that it is not the right time for the release of Pakistani prisoners, official sources said. The retaliatory action came as India made it clear that it will be regarded as "premeditated murder" if Pakistan carries out the death sentence "without observing basic norms of law and justice".
The five accused are booked under POTA for triggering a bomb blast at suburban Ghatkopar in Mumbai on December 2, 2002.
Pakistan has said that Karachi Chambers of Commerce and Industries, which cancelled Indian High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale's public engagement at the last minute, is an independent body, a day after India summoned Pakistani envoy to lodge a strong protest over the incident.
Violating the ceasefire again, Pakistani troops targeted several Indian positions in the Naushera sector of Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir.
'DISGUST' -- that's how former army chief and now Minister of State for external affairs V K Singh reacted after attending the Pakistan Day celebrations in the country's high commission in New Delhi on Monday evening.
Pakistan high commission sources said it has been an usual practice to invite the Kashmiri separatist leaders on such occasions.
Amidst exchange of barbs, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday struck a conciliatory note saying he wants to establish good relations with India.
Dr Mohammed Abdul Matim Abdul Basit alleged that a cop threatened him against tendering evidence on the alleged escape of co-accused Sayyed Khwaja Yunis from the police custody.
The United States, through its embassies in New Delhi and Islamabad, is engaging with the Indian and Pakistani governments on bilateral talks, which the Narendra Modi government called off while objecting to Pakistan consulting Kashmiri separatists ahead of the meeting.
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