As the tussle continues in the run up to the National Security Advisor (NSA) talks, Pakistan has accused India of demonstrating “lack of seriousness”. In a statement released on Friday, the neighbouring country claimed that “India’s insistence to introduce conditions and restrict the agenda for the dialogue demonstrates a lack of seriousness on India’s part to meaningfully engage with Pakistan”.
This came even as India stood firm on its stance of keeping terrorism as the central agenda of the talks. They said that Hurriyat and Kashmir are not part of the Ufa agreement and at no stage would India discuss the Kashmir issue.
In an official response to India’s warning against Pakistan’s National Security Adviser Sartaz Aziz meeting Kashmiri separatists, Islamabad has said “it would not be possible for Pakistan to accept this advice.”
Pakistan said it had proposed a comprehensive agenda reflecting the “broader understanding in Ufa” that all outstanding issues, including Kashmir and terrorism would be discussed between the two countries.
The statement followed a top security meeting in which Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif reportedly said that there would be no stepping back on Kashmir.
While rejecting New Delhi’s stand, Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the leadership has always interacted with Hurriyat leaders during their visit to the neighbouring country and it sees no reason to depart from the practice.
Further hardening its stand, the Pakistan MoFA maintained that India’s insistence to introduce conditionalities demonstrates lack of seriousness on its part to meaningfully engage with Pakistan.
“Islamabad remains willing to attend the NSAs meeting without any pre-conditions”, the Pakistan MoFA asserted.
Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Vikas Swarup said in a statement that it would “not be appropriate” for Aziz to meet Hurriyat representatives ahead of the August 23-24 meeting with India’s NSA Ajit Doval.
Within hours, Pakistan government sources reacted sharply to Indian position and said, “The talks with Hurriyat are on. Pakistan will not take dictation from India. (Indo-Pak) talks are not based on conditional diplomacy.”
Pakistan also accused India of running away from the talks, saying it was yet to send it a proposal on the logistics and agenda for the Aziz-Doval talks.
