Pak rejects Indian objections on Saarc summit

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">NEW DELHI: Pakistan has claimed that it has no official intimation of India''s objections to finalising the Saarc dates or even about India''s insistence on making it conditional to progress on economic issues.<br />Speaking to <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">The Times of India</span>, acting High Commissioner of Pakistan to India, Jaleel Abbas Jilani, said: "It is only through the statements made in the media that we know of this linkage.Officially, it has not been communicated."<br />While Indian sources did not deny this, they said enough had been said through public statements and the media for Pakistan to be aware of the Indian position. "Either they are dumb or they are being oversmart," an official said in response to a question.<br />Pakistani diplomatic sources said they were surprised at the efforts by the Indian government to make the summit conditional and claimed India had raised the issue as an afterthought. They said the issue had not been mentioned by external affairs minister Yashwant Sinha during the Saarc ministerial when there had been a consensus on finalisation of dates for the summit. Officially all that the Indian government has told Pakistan so far is that the issue was being considered and no decision had been taken yet they said.<br />The Indian government has recently repeated, in public statements, the demand for substantive progress on the economic issues, including an early conclusion to Sapta, virtually as a prerequisite for the summit.<br />While there is no official benchmark, the clear set of indicators spelt out for Pakistan include according India MFN status and removing a number of items on the list of tariff concessions under Sapta from the negative list of items. The need for progress on these was spelt out in recent official meetings of the Saarc countries even though no linkage was established to the next Saarc summit.<br />Pakistani diplomatic sources, however, argue that MFN is not an obligation under Saarc or Safta but under the WTO, and that it is an obligation that has been challenged by many countries.<br />The sources further said that on the issue of taking specific items off the negative list, it would require some time and the Indian side had been asked during discussions to accept the concessional tariff list conditionally in the meantime.<br />While unwilling to get any deeper into the merits or demerits of the Indian stand, Pakistani diplomatic sources argued that the real issue was India''s attempt to impose a condition. This would allow any country to block the summit at any time on some excuse or the other. The summit, they said, was meant to give directions to the experts and should be held.<br />The sources further said the "attempt to make attendance at Saarc conditional on ending cross-border terrorism adds to the confusion".<br />The sources claimed that their position was endorsed by all other members of Saarc even though these countries were loth to go public on their differences with India. </div> </div>