No meeting planned between Sharif and Modi at UNGA: Pak

Pakistan on Thursday said that no meeting was planned between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

"We have not sought a meeting and we have not received any request," Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said at the weekly briefing.

She said Sharif would not meet US President Barack Obama as the two leaders would not be in New York at the same time.

However, the Pakistani leader had six or seven meetings with various heads of states and governments, including one with the UN Secretary General.

Replying to a question, she said the two Foreign Offices are in contact through their respective High Commissions about possible meetings of the foreign secretaries which was cancelled last month.

"We did not cancel the talks so it is up to India now to indicate how it wants to proceed," she said.

Aslam said that Sharif visited India to attend the oath taking ceremony of Prime Minister Modi and there the two leaders agreed that the two Foreign Secretaries would meet and resume the dialogue process.

"You would recall that the meeting between the Foreign Secretaries was also announced but it was then abruptly cancelled by the Indian side on the pretext that Pakistani High Commissioner in New Delhi had met with the Kashmiri Hurriyat leaders," she said.

She said Pakistan wants to focus on the disputes between the two countries, including the issue of Kashmir so that a peaceful solution could be found through dialogue.

"Our efforts are not lacking in any way," she said.

Aslam also said that Pakistan offered to assist flood victims in Jammu and Kashmir.

Pakistan also proposed India to address the larger issue of climate change and other issues that may be adversely impacting the climate.