Pak gets to pick from three for its consulate in city

After over five months of dilly-dallying, Pakistan appears closer to reopening its consulate in Mumbai as the Maharashtra government has offered it three fresh properties to choose from. The list has been sent to the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi.

Official sources said the list includes a bungalow on Warden Road, Aman Chambers in Prabhadevi and a plot belonging to the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) in Bandra.

“We are taking a close look at each venue,” said a senior Pakistani diplomat. “Security and location are two important criteria. We will carefully analyse each option before finalising the property,” he added.

“The state government has sent the details to the MEA (ministry of external affairs) and is waiting for the response,” said Maharashtra Chief Secretary DK Sankaran.

“The MEA had asked us to identify some locations for the consulate. There were several criteria to zero in on locations fit for the consulate,” Sankaran said. “One of the requirements was that it should be located in a commercial area.”

RB Kanade, chief protocol officer in the general administration department, said, “We sent the list of these locations to the MEA in April and are yet to receive a response.”

India is eagerly awaiting a response from Pakistan and is hoping that this time round they would be able to find a suitable site from the three properties.