The foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan are supposedly going to hold a meeting at the end of this month but Pakistan feels that it has put them in a ‘fix’.

 

Indian Foreign secretary Nirupama Rao has invited Salman Bashir, foreign secretary of Pakistan for a meeting. India has given a tentative date for the meeting as February 18 and February 25 which has not yet been accepted by Pakistan.

 

One of the Pakistani officials said, “It (offer made by India) has put the Foreign Ministry in a fix,” and he also feels that the offer is probably a ‘bait’. Pakistani envoys are carefully considering the offer. Pakistan feels it is being enticed in the name of foreign-secretary negotiations.

 

A Pakistan official said, “It was felt that we ought to be very careful because engagement with India without any prior agreement on resumption of Composite Dialogue would not be to our advantage.”

 

 A Pakistani Envoy added “At the end of the day it is going to be the political leadership’s decision on whether or not to accept the invitation. It might come up with some ‘out of box thinking’.”