Pak to hike staff, send Indus panel

Putting behind the embarrassing spat at the UN General Assembly last week, India and Pakistan, it seems, have decided to take Prime Minister...

Putting behind the embarrassing spat at the UN General Assembly last week, India and Pakistan, it seems, have decided to take Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee’s initiative with Islamabad, agreeing to increase the staff strength at respective High Commissions from 47 to 55 and to fix a date for the visit of Pakistan Indus Water Commission’s team to Baglihar project in Jammu and Kashmir.

Government sources confirmed that Pakistan today agreed to the Indian proposal to increase staff strength to cater to the increased visa demands at both ends. It is learnt that Islamabad has conveyed through diplomatic channels, its willingness to send a team to Baglihar project on river Chenab in Jammu and Kashmir. While the dates will be finalised at mutual convenience, the Pakistan Indus Water Commission team is expected to visit the project later this month.

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The Pakistan Indus Commissioner had placed a request to visit the project to verify Indian claims that the project was only for generating hydroelectric power and not for storage purposes. Under the 1960 Indus Water Treaty, India is not allowed to store water on the river Chenab.

On September 23, India in a bid to step up the normalisation process had proposed increasing staff strength to the levels that existed after the December 13 attack on Parliament. The increase is only logical in the context of people-to-people contacts with New Delhi now issuing 40 visas daily to Pakistani nationals. This increase is clearly reflected in the fact that the Delhi-Lahore bus is fully booked till November 15 as resumption of air links between the two countries is yet to fructify.

It is understood that seeing the rush on the bus service, New Delhi had even purposed that seats should be doubled on the Delhi-Lahore route by running two buses on the same day. But Islamabad is apparently averse to the idea.

While New Delhi is all for step-by-step normalisation of ties, it is still waiting on Islamabad’s action on cross-border infiltration for a sustained dialogue. It has already approved resumption of multi-lateral sporting links with Pakistan.

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On its part, Pakistan is interested in restoration of bilateral ties to pre-December 13 status apart from dialogue on the outstanding issues, with Kashmir as a priority. However, with the Indian Army recording as many as 28 infiltration bids across the Line of Control last month and 12 bids in August, this appears to be a bridge too far.