Pak. was unprepared: Jaswant

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, AUG. 10. The External Affairs Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh, today said that contrary to the widespread impression of Indian underpreparedness at Agra, it was in fact the Pakistani side which did not have ``clear instructions'' from its President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf. It was Gen. Musharraf who preferred to draw the draft declaration with the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Intervening in a discussion in the Rajya Sabha on the Prime Minister's statement on the summit, the Minister said that when both sides agreed officials would work on a possible Joint Declaration or Joint Statement, the Pakistani officials declined for ``they had no clear instructions or prepared documents''.

Mr. Singh said Gen. Musharraf wanted to draft the document with the Prime Minister, an exercise the heads of Government were not expected to undertake, and it was then that he proposed that the task be taken up by him and his Pakistani counterpart, Mr. Abdul Sattar.

Clarifying that he had not initialled any draft along with Mr. Sattar, Mr. Singh said they had drawn ``six square brackets'' which were taken back to the respective camps to eliminate as many as possible. The Cabinet Committee on Security then decided that the priority was not to find an agreed text but to see what would meet India's aspirations.

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