Pak ’Vows’ Serious Action On 26/11 Leads

M.today

ISLAMABAD, July 15: Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Thursday said he and his Indian counterpart S M Krishna had "frank, candid and honest discussions" on "where we stand" and "how to move forward"."We had frank, candid and honest discussions on terrorism, Jammu and Kashmir, recent developments in Jammu and Kashmir, Sir Creek and Siachen, said Qureshi.

India and Pakistan discussed ways to hasten trial process happening here (on Mumbai attacks). Pakistan would take seriously the leads given by home minister P Chidambaram, said Qureshi.He also apologised for the delay in holding the press conference, which was originally scheduled for late afternoon but eventually began at night.

"Let me apologise for the delay. Our talks took much longer than anticipated. After all, we were meeting after a long time and there was much to discuss," Qureshi said.

Krishna called on Asif Ali Zardari and discussed the issue of terrorism, with the Pakistani President stressing for timely intelligence sharing between the two countries to prevent acts of terror.

Krishna, who arrived here yesterday on a three-day visit to hold parleys with his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi, met Zardari and discussed issues of bilateral concern.

Zardari said that "destinies of the people of both Pakistan and India and development of the entire region lies in friendly, cooperative and good neighbourly relations between the two countries."

A statement from the Presidency said Zardari "stressed for timely information and intelligence sharing between the two counties to prevent any incident of terrorism and violence and that terror incidents don’t affect our ties in the future."Krishna was accompanied by Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and Indian High Commissioner in Pakistan Sharat Sabharwal.

From the Pakistani side those who attended the meeting included Qureshi, Interior Minister Rahman Malik and Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir.

While appreciating the re-engagement between the two countries, Zardari said that heavy responsibility devolves on both Pakistan and India to have sustained dialogue and steer "our nations from conflictual path to a cooperative course for the uplift and welfare of the region and people of the two countries."

He said that the water issue was becoming serious as it had adverse impacts on Pakistan’s agriculture and added that the Indus Water Treaty should be fully honoured and implemented.