Pak. invitation this week

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, JULY 23. Pakistan will send a formal invitation to the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, some time this week to visit Islamabad ``at the earliest'' to pick up the threads from Agra and build on the understanding arrived at in the course of the summit level talks on July 15 and 16.

The Pakistan Foreign Minister, Mr. Abdul Sattar, told a group of visiting Indian journalists here that Islamabad looked forward to an early opportunity to `reassemble and resume' the dialogue process. ``There is no need for us to either start afresh or go back. We can build on the understanding arrived at in Agra.''

Mr. Sattar was not willing to join issue with Mr. Vajpayee on whether or not both the sides had arrived at an understanding at Agra. (The Pakistan Foreign Minister as well as the President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, had claimed last week that the two sides had arrived at an understanding at least on two separate draft Joint Declarations at Agra).

On India's concern over `cross-border terrorism,' Mr. Sattar said an agreement at Agra would have helped in all matters. Asked about the campaign by some in Pakistan that hardliners like the Home Minister, Mr. L. K. Advani, were responsible for not signing the Joint Declaration, Mr. Sattar said it was not fair to hold any Minister responsible.

Striking a conciliatory note on further dialogue with India, Mr. Sattar said there were some areas which had no `closure'. ``Therefore the need for an early opportunity to re- visit and resume the process,'' he said.

The Foreign Minister said the draft letter of invitation to Mr. Vajpayee was ready and awaiting the signature of Gen. Musharraf. He would also be sending an invitation to his Indian counterpart, Mr. Jaswant Singh.

Mr. Sattar confirmed that the Foreign Secretaries of the two countries would be meeting in Colombo on the sidelines of the SAARC Standing Committee meeting in the first week of August.

``There is need for restraint on both the sides. We sincerely believe what was achieved at Agra needs to be preserved. Otherwise it would damage the Agra process. In my assessment the real progress would be in establishing structures for continuation of the dialogue,'' he said.

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