Pak PM's visit to bolster ties

Aziz meets hurriyat conference leaders, to call on manmohan singh today

Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz arrived today on a two-day visit. But if he brought a formal version of General Pervez Musharraf's proposal of joint Indo-Pak sovereignty, the Indian government did not get to hear of it today.

External affairs ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said Aziz met BJP chief and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha LK Advani, NDA chairman Atal Bihari Vajpayee and External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh today.

A meeting with Petroleum Minister Manishankar Aiyar was postponed to tomorrow. He also met leader of the All-Party Hurriyat Conference one by one in the evening.

Sarna said it was mainly Saarc and related issues including the progress in Safta negotiations that Aziz and the Indian side discussed. Sarna said the large number of ministers who formed the Aziz delegation indicated that some forward movement on bilateral issues might take place in the talks.

Ministers for petroleum, railways, water and power besides ministers of state for foreign affairs, overseas Pakistanis and culture, sports and youth are accompanying Aziz. Three senators and seven National Assembly members are also members of the delegation.

Some substantive dialogue is expected to take place tomorrow when he meets Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Sources on the Pakistani side said it was going to raise the issue of the 450 Mw Baglihar hydel project in Jammu and Kashmir over the Chenab river. These sources said Islamabad proposed to go for international arbitration if the talks did not succeed this time.

The Indian side has indicated that it wants to raise the height of the dam that Pakistan claims violates the Indus water Treaty.

India has turned down Pakistan's demand for a neutral expert to inspect project on the grounds that the issue could be resolved amicably and that the ground situation was not conducive to the visit of these experts.

However, it is the issue of the formula for Jammu and Kashmir suggested by Gen Musharraf at an Iftaar party that was expected to be put on the table formally by Shaukat Aziz that everyone is awaiting.

The outlines of the formula were that Kashmir should not be divided further but united by demilitarizing and linking contiguous portions of India and Pakistan held Kashmir.

The unstated premise was that these should be Muslim-dominated areas. Musharraf had suggested that either the United Nations or India and Pakistan jointly hold sovereignty over these areas.

At that time India's reaction was that these ideas could not be discussed through the media. Foreign Minister K Natwar Singh had also said he expected Aziz to moot this when he came to Delhi.

The proposed $ 4.16 billion Iran-India gas pipeline passing through Pakistan is expected to be discussed with petroleum minister Aiyar calls on Aziz tomorrow.

India is likely to ask Pakistan to confer upon it the Most Favoured Nation status and allow use of its territory as transit for bringing gas and oil from central Asia as part of a wider economic cooperation package that would also include the Iran-India pipeline.

New Delhi also wants Islamabad to guarantee security of physical infrastructure as 760-km of the 2,775-km pipeline will pass through Pakistan and guarantee uninterrupted supplies.