[world-vedic] Pak Leader to take Bus to India

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Musharraf to take bus to India/via www.deccan.comPak

New Delhi and Islamabad: Prodded by US President Bill Clinton, snubbed

by Islamic South-East nations like Indonesia and Malaysia, not to speak

of Singapore and Thailand during his current 7-nation tour, Pakistan

Chief Executive General Pervez Musharraf announced that he would take

the bus to Delhi to re-start the stalled Lahore peace process.

No date has been set for the visit, but Gen Musharraf is expected to

visit India during the first half of April. Musharraf's decision was

relayed to New Delhi by Indian envoy in Islamabad G Parthasarthy, who

met with Pakistan Foreign Secretary Inam-ul-Haq on Friday night.

 

He was briefed on Islamabad's intention to hold bilateral talks at the

highest level on resumption of the peace process, confidence-building

measures, checking of cross-border terrorism and Kashmir.

 

A Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson said late Friday that India

has, in principle, agreed to receive Musharraf in New Delhi, but said

India's focus on the talks would be all aspects of bilateral talks

including trade issues, but maintained that the Kashmir issue was

non-negotiable.

 

According to the MEA sources, the Pakistani officials, at their meeting

with Parthasarthy in Islamabad on Friday night, indicated that

Musharraf was also keen on visiting Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh, a city

described by Clinton as "India's hi-tech capital."

 

The Singaporean Prime Minister had also spent a day in Hyderabad, while

Malaysian and Indonesian industry and trade are keen on projects in the

the State.

 

(Our Hyderbad bureau adds Sources at the Chief Minister's Office and

the State government said that it was too early for the State to be

informed. They pointed out that even during the visit of the US

President, all the details had been handled by the Ministry of External

Affairs at New Delhi)

 

Musharraf's about-turn, made in the midst of his Southeast Asian tour,

came a week after the stern warning issued by Clinton to resume

immediate bilateral dialogue with New Delhi, and amidst cold receptions

in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Jakarta and Bangkok.

 

In fact, Mahathir Mohammed bluntly advised Musharraf to re-start the

Lahore peace process and Goh Chok Tong told the Pakistan CE not to

destabilise the region.Pakistan High Commissioner Ashraf Jehangir Qazi,

who is presently in Pakistan, is expected to initiate the process of

Musharraf's visit with Indian Foreign Secretary Lalit Mansingh when he

returns to New Delhi on Monday. Judging by the urgency on the side of

Islamabad, the Pakistani General's visit, depending on New Delhi's

response, can take place as quickly as a week's time, said MEA sources.

 

The MEA sources indicated that Musharraf would arrive with a high-level

delegation including his Foreign Minister Abdus Sattar, the Foreign

Secretary, as well as a business delegation to thrash out the

long-pending trade issues between the two countries.

 

Significantly, Pakistani envoy to Washington, Maleeha Lodhi, is

expected to be part of Musharraf's delegation.The sources said India

would be represented by, apart from the one-to-one talks between

Musharraf and Vajpayee, External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh,

Minister of State for Small Industries Vasundara Raje, the foreign

secretary, besides the joint secretaries in-charge of Pakistan,

Afghanistan and Bangladesh.Gen Musharraf's Friday announcement appears

to be well-calculated, as two days earlier, Pakistani Foreign Secretary

Inam-ul-Haq met Parthasarthy in Islamabad and set in the process of

former bilateral dialogue.

 

Although Haq had insisted that the talks should be based on the

principles of "simultaneity" and not "reciprocity," Musharraf's Friday

announcement has clearly dropped this insistence.

 

Pakistan policy experts here said Gen Musharraf, though he put up a

brave front during Clinton's visit to Islamabad by telling his people

that he has not given an inch into the US President's demands, had no

choice but to unilaterally resume the dialogue with New Delhi, given

the tenor of Clinton's warning and the likely outcome of ignoring it.

 

Even during his on-going Southeast Asian tour, Gen Musharraf discovered

that Pakistan is an isolated nation now.It was this realisation that

made him shift his stance from stating in Singapore that Kashmir

remains the core of any bilateral dialogue with India, to saying in

Jakarta the next day that he was ready to drop the insistence on

outside mediation on Kashmir and resume dialogue with New Delhi

unconditionally.

 

Addressing a joint press conference at Jakarta with Indonesian

President Abdurrehman Wahid, the Pakistani General had said: "I am

prepared to meet anybody at any level at any time... whether it is

through bilateral (with India), or through mediation, or through

whatever word you want to use."

 

That, in effect, set the new Pakistani policy towards India, according

to the opinion of experts here.Pakistan is already embarking on

privatising its industries, and Musharraf would like to visit Hyderabad

not only because of the sizeable Muslim population there, but also

because Islamabad wants to see more people-to-people interaction on

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