Amidst reports of differences between India andPakistan over the approach to be adopted on the Kashmir issue during the AgraIndo-Pak summit, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf held detailed discussionswith Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar and other top officials to finalise thestrategy.
While India wants confidence-building andtrust-enhancing measures to be the centre-piece of the summit, Pakistan desiresthe talks to be pegged on to Kashmir with other contentious issues to follow onthe agenda.
"We have been trying to find a mutually acceptableway to fine tune this basic difference in approach before the summit meetingtakes place. We are still at it", an unnamed official was quoted as saying.
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He said Musharraf's meeting yesterday with Sattar andother officials was to chalk out the strategy to be adopted at the summit-leveltalks with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
According to the official, the issues that would betaken up at the summit meeting include problems of regional stability, nucleararms race and spending on defence and conventional arms build-up.
Other issues likely to figure during the talks areKashmir, Siachen Glacier and the possibilities of broadening economic, commerceand trade engagements between the two countries.
The official said what is not yet decided is thesequence in which these problems would be taken up. "There are considerabledifferences on how the two sides are approaching the agenda for talks", hesaid.
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The Pakistani official also indicated to the Dawnnewspaper that there was a possibility the talks could be divided into formalsessions to have more structured discussions.
"The Indians have made the first proposal (on howthe discussions should proceed) in this regard and we are studying itclosely", he said. The final blueprint was not ready yet, he added.
He said one reason why the finer details of how thetalks should proceed were still not final was that both sides want to cramp asmuch dialogue during the summit as possible. Much had been planned by way ofnegotiations, he said.
Hardly any issue that matters to either side had beenleft out of the talks, he said. Too many details were there to be finalised, hesaid.
Significantly, yesterday's meeting was also attended byDeputy Chief of Army Staff Lt.Gen. Muzaffar Usmani, who has been involved insuch a publicised exercise for the first time.
Lt.Gen. Usmani was the Corps Commander, Karachi, whenGen Musharraf's plane from Colombo was refused permission by the deposed PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif to land on October 12, 1999, which subsequently led to thecoup.
Lt.Gen. Usmani was made the Deputy Chief of the Armyrecently.
PTI
