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India's inflexibility caused
summit failure: Pakistan

Muhammad Najeeb in Agra

Pakistan has blamed India's "inflexibility" on issues like Kashmir and cross-border terrorism and a cabinet minister in Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government for the inability of the two countries to agree on an Agra declaration.

Musharraf's high-profile press secretary Maj Gen Rashid Qureshi told Pakistani journalists that Indian Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj's statement had created serious problems at the summit.

Swaraj's statement to the media on the content of the talks did not mention the Kashmir issue at all even though, Qureshi said, it was "substantially discussed."

"India continuously sent out messages through their television networks to water down our positions when the talks were going very well," a senior Pakistani government official told IANS hours before returning to Islamabad.

He said there were differences over three issues that India wanted to include in the joint statement that ultimately did not materialise.

One, India wanted Pakistan to admit that "mafia dons" like Dawood Ibrahim were residing in Pakistan.

The Pakistani side on the other hand wanted India to provide proof, and in turn asked the latter to admit the presence of Muttahida Quami Movement leaders like Javed Langra in the country.

Two, India asked Pakistan to declare Azhar Masood, who was released as per the demand of the hijackers of an Indian Airlines aircraft in December 1999, a terrorist. India also wanted Pakistan to hand over the hijackers, who are believed to be residing in that country.

To this, the Pakistani official said: "We asked them to identify the hijackers and we'll hand them over to India."

Three, India wanted Pakistan to admit cross-border terrorism and a pledge to take immediate steps to stop it. "How can we stop a thing which we haven't started, rather it is beyond our control," the official said.

Pakistan's demands too were refused by India. "We asked them to promise the implementation of the UN Security Council resolution, but they wanted us to forget this," the official said.

The Pakistani delegation claimed the Indian side went back on the agreed text of a joint declaration at least three times.

India essentially failed to show the flexibility that was needed to make the "declaration" possible -- the flexibility to acknowledge that Kashmir was an outstanding issue, the resolution of which was central to the normalisation process of India-Pakistan ties, another official told IANS.

Indo-Asian News Service

Indo-Pak Summit 2001: The Complete Coverage

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