Pak wants to invite SM Krishna for talks, hints Qureshi

Pakistan intends to invite external affairs minister SM Krishna to Islamabad where it will make "certain proposals" to bridge the "trust deficit" between the two countries.

Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said holding of talks between him and Krishna as agreed by the prime ministers of the two countries in Thimphu was "very urgent". He would telephone Krishna after Parliament session ends tomorrow.

"I intend to invite him to Islamabad but I have no issues with that. If he is occupied and he cannot come, then I have no issue in coming to Delhi," he said in an interview to Karan Thapar for Devil's Advocate programme.

"I think both sides would acknowledge the fact that there is a trust deficit and the prime ministers have asked the two foreign ministers to bridge that trust deficit. I have certain proposals which I am going to share with Krishna when I get an opportunity to meet with him." Qureshi said.

Asked whether the back-channel understandings reached on the Kashmir issue during Pervez Musharraf regime remain valid, Qureshi said, "the present democratically elected government recognises the significance of a back channel.

"At times, quiet diplomacy is useful. And we do not rule out the possibility of continuing the back channel. But I am of the opinion that the back channel can only work in tandem with the front channel," he said.

The understandings, he said, were reached between the then leaderships. "We will have to see. We are a democracy and in a democracy you got to get it endorsed by Parliament," he added.

Asserting that progress can be made on Kashmir through peaceful negotiations, he said, "we have undertaken and we have in place a number of confidence-building measures vis-a-vis Kashmir and we can build further on them".

On the conviction of Ajmal Kasab for the 26/11 attacks, he said, "...We have to begin with respect for each other's judicial processes".

Qureshi said the meeting between the two prime ministers in Thimpu would not come under the shadow of the Kasab trial and the judgement for Lashker-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed and operations chief Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi.

"I don't think so. I think the spirit of Thimpu has to be kept alive. That is the only sensible way forward".

Asked about the possible extradition of Kasab, he said, "I am not a legal expert and I cannot give you a legal opinion on that but I think that we have a far bigger agenda on the table".

He said Pakistan would comment on the extradition of Hafiz Saeed and Lakhvi, if the Indian government "first communicated the detailed judgement to us. Our legal experts will examine it and then only will I be in a position to comment".