India was not ready for talks: Pakistan

Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Friday took a dig at his Indian counterpart, S M Krishna, stating that the latter was receiving foreign policy directions from New Delhi repeatedly during their meeting on Thursday.

Talking to media persons in Islamabad, Qureshi said India was not prepared for the talks.

"Politics and dialogue should not lead to deadlock...but India was not ready for dialogue... short-sightedness will not help in resolve the issues," Qureshi said.

"The Indian Foreign Minister received foreign policy directions from New Delhi repeatedly during our meeting. This attitude shows that India was not mentally prepared for the talks."

On his part, the Pakistan foreign minister said he did not step out of the talks to "attend any phone calls".

Accusing India of being "selective" in its approach, Qureshi said the dialogue cannot move forward till its concerns were also understood by New Delhi.

"If we focus more only on those issues which India gives importance to and ignore those considered important by Pakistan, then I don't think the talks can move forward," he told media persons.

"There are difficulties and we need to find a way to handle them," Qureshi said, adding "we are ready to engage, we are ready to negotiate any time, anywhere and we are not in a hurry. We will wait till they are ready".

He said Pakistan wanted a roadmap for the future as an outcome of the talks but the Indian side felt they did not have the mandate to make such a commitment.

"India was narrowing the dialogue and we said you cannot be selective," Qureshi said.

"We understand India's concerns and want to address them. But Pakistan also has its concerns and core issues which should be understood by India," he said.