Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar arrived here today to a warm welcome but soon after her delegation and she touched down, she held meetings with the two rival factions of the All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC), putting the issue of Kashmir squarely back on the agenda.
Syed Ali Shah Geelani led a two-member delegation to meet Khar this evening. The other member of the delegation was spokesman Aiyaz Akhbar. “We held discussions on a wide range of issues and pressed for making Kashmir a core issue,” Geelani told reporters.Even as this meeting was going on, foreign secretary Nirupama Rao and her Pak counterpart, Salman Bashir, finalised a slew of confidence-building measures designed to expand cross-LoC travel and trade in Jammu and Kashmir, apart from holding discussions on terrorism, including progress in Pakistan in the probe into the November 2008 Mumbai attack and ISI's links with Kashmiri separatists. India handed over to the delegation a revised list of 48 'most wanted' fugitives.
Pakistan interior minister Rehman Malik, part of the delegation, said according to their law of evidence, it would not be possible for that country to take voice samples of those India has charged as being conspirators in the Mumbai attack. At this, Indian home minister P Chidambaram noted there was no difference between the Indian and Pakistani Evidence Act and suggested to Malik there were several ways of taking voice samples. However, the issue of terrorism notwithstanding, there are high hopes from the meeting of the two foreign Ministers tomorrow and the expectation that more trade measures could be announced.
When she arrived Khar said: "The is hope that these two countries have learnt lessons from history, but are not burdened by history and we can move forward as good, friendly neighbours who have a stake in each other's future and both the countries understand their responsibilities to the region and within the region."
Besides reviewing the progress made by India and Pakistan on various bilateral issues during the series of meetings, including security, commerce, water and Siachen, external affairs minister S M Krishna and Khar will also explore areas to expand cooperation. The ministers will also explore the possibility to upgrade the engagement in some areas such as commerce and security to the ministerial level, sources said.
