Pakistan’s response to India’s “wishlist” with regard to those behind the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks is “critical for substantive movement” in the bilateral dialogue, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said on Sunday.
Speaking to Suhasini Haider on CNN-IBN, Salman Khurshid said, “We are not very satisfied with the visit of Rehman Malik and have not received what we had demanded.”
But the peace process would not stop due to this, he added.
Salman Khurshid is confident of the continuing dialogue with Pakistan. AFP
Khurshid did not see the controversial statements made by Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik while he was in India recently as a “setback” in the dialogue process.
“What is said or what gesture is made is not ‘critical’”, he added.
“I don’t see it as a setback at all. But I do believe and (what) we all believe in this country is that dialogue will move smoothly, faster and in a right direction provided the wishlist lying with Pakistan given by India as far as the Mumbai tragedy is concerned is responded to. That is a critical thing, not what is said, not what gesture is made.
Asked about the delay in Pakistan granting Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India, Khurshid said India will do whatever needs to be done to persuade them to move on this.
“We believe that it should have been done. We will do whatever needs to be done to persuade them that we should now be able to do it. It is not something which should be delayed indefinitely. It is not something we should just forget that it happened.
On asked in the same interview to CNN-IBN on granting visa to Javed Miandad, he said, “I think it’s more than clear that we haven’t ever and nobody in Pakistan has offered for that matter in anywhere in the world put a question mark on Javed Miandad, that he has a personal involvement or that his integrity as far as these issues are concerned is doubtful etc. So should we have just been… said ‘Well we think emotionally. You are not to come”. We made categories, those categories included ‘official of Pakistan Cricket Board’ and ofcourse people who wanted to come and had return tickets etc.”
However, he said that India should get a sense of closure in the Mumbai terror attacks case and that would mean that Pakistan would have support India unconditionally.
(With PTI inputs)
