Pak insists on resumption of composite dialogue with India

While India has indicated that it may restart the foreign secretary level talks with Pakistan, Islamabad maintains that it would accept nothing short of resumption of comprehensive 'composite dialogue' with New Delhi.

"We want result-oriented and sustained dialogue and no format of engagement other than composite dialogue will be acceptable to us," Pakistan foreign office spokesman Abdul Basit said.

It may be noted that Union External Affairs Minister S M Krishna had said that Home Minister P. Chidambaram would attend the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit in Pakistan on February 26 and 27, where he would meet his Pakistani counterpart and other leaders.

"This will certainly make it easier for India to carry on normal business with Pakistan. We are trying to focus their attention on terrorism. It would be extremely helpful for our bilateral relationship and dialogue," Krishna, had said.

The Dawn quoted Basit, as saying that Pakistan would not be interested in 'talks for the sake of talks.'

However, he said, the foreign office would like to assess any Indian proposal and see if it could help resume the composite dialogue, which were stalled after the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

While Pakistan has been pushing hard for the resumption of the bilateral talks, New Delhi maintains that dialogue between both countries is not possible unless Islamabad initiates substantial action against the 26/11 perpetrators and other India-focussed terror groups.