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Pakistan voices concern over Siachen

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday reiterated its commitment to the peace process with India but also flagged “serious concerns” over Siachen and the sharing of river waters as the country’s new National Security Adviser Mahmud Ali Durrani prepared to leave for New Delhi for talks with his counterpart M.K. Narayanan.

The top Pakistani official, who retired from the Army as a major-general and served as ambassador to the U.S. in the Musharraf regime, will arrive in the Indian capital on Saturday for the first ever talks between the National Security Advisers of the two countries.

Major-General Durrani, who is officially designated as the Adviser to the Prime Minister on National Security Affairs, is scheduled to meet Mr. Naryanan on Monday. He will also meet External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and senior officials in the Ministry of External Affairs.

Officials here said the visit, the first by a member of the new team in Pakistan since the Asif Ali Zardari became President, was intended for the two National Security Advisers “to get to know each other.”

His meeting with Mr. Narayanan will likely follow up on ground covered by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Mr. Zardari at their meeting in New York last month, focusing on the security issues, including the attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul.

Major General Durrani is no novice to India-Pakistan issues. He was active on the “Track Two” circuit of the peace process before his U.S. posting in June 2006. He is also the author of a book “India and Pakistan: The Cost of Conflict and the Benefits of Peace.”

Earlier, some media reports here suggested that the new government offered to retain Tariq Aziz, who, as the secretary to the National Security Council in the Musharraf regime, conducted backchannel negotiations with India, as a “special envoy” to New Delhi. But sources close to Mr. Aziz said he had declined the offer.

The Foreign Ministry said Pakistan desired a “mutually beneficial and harmonious co-operative relationship” with India.

At the Ministry’s regular weekly briefing, spokesman Mohammed Sadiq reiterated Pakistan’s commitment to a “serious, sustained and constructive” engagement between the two countries for “full and early normalisation of relations on the basis of mutual respect, peaceful co-existence and non-interference.”

The spokesman said Pakistan was to expand bilateral trade with India and was also ready for a liberalisation of the visa regime.

But Mr. Sadiq also said Pakistan was “seriously concerned” about the reduction of the flow of water into Pakistan in the Chenab river as it caused “extensive damage” to crops on this side.

He said the Indian action was a “clear violation” of the Indus Waters Treaty. As a result of Pakistan’s complaints on the issue, India had invited the Pakistani Indus Waters Commissioner to inspect the Baglihar Dam. The visit was likely to take place on October 18, he said. “We were assured the Indian government will take steps necessary to rectify the situation. Our efforts, however, will continue and intensify till the issue is resolved,” he said.

The spokesman said Pakistan had also taken up with New Delhi the issue of the Indian government allowing a week-long trekking expedition to the Siachen glacier.

He said the final status of the glacier was yet to be determined and was the subject of talks between the two countries.

“Pakistan calls upon the Indian side to desist from acts that cast a shadow on the peace process between Pakistan and India,” he said.

Asked to comment on Mr. Zardari’s remarks in an interview to The Wall Street Journal, describing militants in Jammu and Kashmir as “terrorists” and that India was never a threat to Pakistan, the spokesman said the “sound bytes” had been “wrongly attributed” to the Pakistan President in the “paraphrased interview.”

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