Let’s talk

Pakistani Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar arrived in New Delhi this afternoon to conduct the first round of the Foreign Secretary dialogue in...

Pakistani Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar arrived in New Delhi this afternoon to conduct the first round of the Foreign Secretary dialogue in six years— and was greeted by the news that President Pervez Musharraf had sacked his Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali back home in Islamabad.

The head of Pakistan’s ruling party, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, was named as successor, but only for a 45-50 day period after which the premiership will go to former Citibank, New York, vice president Shaukat Aziz. Aziz has been credited with the economic turnaround in Pakistan since Musharraf made him Finance Minister after the 1999 coup.

Although both sides are too diplomatically suave to refer to this dramatic event during the two-day discussions over the next couple of days, the fact remains that the timing of the sacking will loom large over the conduct and the character of the talks.

The two Foreign Secretaries will comprehensively review the state of the bilateral relationship that has existed since their last encounter in October 1998 in Islamabad. New Delhi is likely to propose a slew of Kashmir-specific confidence-building measures, including talks on a proposed bus from Srinagar to Muzaffarabad across the Line of Control, as well as a series of military and non-military CBMs.