India goes ahead with CBMs

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, JULY 18. Unmindful of the `cold response' from the military establishment in Pakistan, India is going ahead with enforcement of the confidence-building measures (CBMs) announced days ahead of the Agra summit.

The member-secretary of the Indian Council of Social Sciences Research (ICSSR), Mr. Bhaskar Chatterjee, is now here as a follow-up to the announcement from New Delhi offering 27 fellowships to senior researchers from Pakistan.

Mr. Chatterjee told The Hindu here that the scheme of scholarships envisaged award of fellowships to 27 senior researchers from Pakistan for study in institutions of higher learning and universities across India.

``Each scholar would get an opportunity to stay for six months and pursue research in the subject of his/her interest. Developmental issues would be our priority. Our focus would be on subjects such as education, health, environment and women's issues,'' he said.

The idea is to link the Pakistani scholars to `matching institutions' in India and enable them to pursue research in areas of mutual interest. Mr. Chatterjee who has been in Pakistan since Monday has visited several research institutions and universities in Islamabad and Peshawar. Among the institutions he has visited include the Quaid-e-Azam University, the Pakistan Institute for Development Economics and the Society for Development Policy Institute and the Peshawar University.

The senior official of the ICSSR is planning to leave for Lahore tomorrow and travel to Karachi from there.

Pakistan is not exactly happy over the manner in which India has gone about the announcement on CBMs. The immediate response of Islamabad to the series of CBMs unveiled by New Delhi was that it expected CBMs to flow from the summit.

A statement by the Pakistan Foreign Office had maintained that Pakistan expected CBMs to follow rather than precede the Agra summit. It was the same response at the news conference by the Pakistan Foreign Minister, Mr. Abdul Sattar, the day after he returned from his trip to India.

Mr. Sattar said the CBMs did not figure at the Agra summit and there was no change in the position of Islamabad on the subject.

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