ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will give evidence pertaining to the Research and Analysis Wing’s (RAW’s) involvement in Pakistan to India, Adviser to the PM on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said.
He said that Pakistan had undeniable and valid proof that RAW was involved in terrorist activities to destabilise Pakistan. It was carrying out its subversive activities in Balochistan, Karachi and Fata particularly and Pakistan had decided to provide India with this proof.
He said that Afghan peace was vital for regional peace and expressed the hope that the new round of talks between the Afghan government and Afghan Taliban would be held soon.
Sartaj Aziz, speaking at the launch of “Hubris”, a book by Lord Desai, an Indian-born British politician, and active British Labour Party member of the House of Lords, said, “Pakistan will never invite the Speaker of Occupied Jammu and the Kashmir Assembly to the upcoming Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference.
Meanwhile, positions between Islamabad and New Delhi hardened on Saturday as Pakistan refused to be dictated by India about whom to invite to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference to be held in Islamabad from September 30 to October 8. A message from India to the organisers of the conference said that unless the Speaker of Occupied Jammu and Kashmir was invited, the Indian side would not participate.
“Pakistan’s principled position on Jammu and Kashmir will be compromised if the speaker of the Indian-held Kashmir’s legislature is invited to the conference because Pakistan does not recognise and accept the said (Jammu and Kashmir) assembly”, Aziz said.
He added that over 70 percent of delegates had already confirmed their participation to the conference and there is no chance of it being postponed just because India will not attend.
A shadow has also been cast on the proposed meetings of the two National Security Advisors on August 23-24
in New Delhi as proposed by India.
Islamabad is reluctant to sit across the table with India as continued ceasefire violations are taking the lives of Pakistani soldiers and citizens at the LoC and Working Boundary and outrageous allegations of terrorist attacks allegedly by Pakistanis and the capture of alleged Pakistani spies being arrested in India are doing the rounds.
“Pakistan is preparing its agenda for the meeting and consultations for that are under way. After finalisation of the agenda, it will be shared with India”, said Sartaj Aziz while not ruling out the talks altogether with some officials suggesting that Pakistan may propose new dates for the same.
In a hint that Pakistan might even walk the talk was evident from Aziz’s remarks that India’s blame game would be a topic for the NSA talks.
Meanwhile, the Indian High Commissioner Dr TCA Raghavan who had hosted a well-attended dinner for Lord and Lady Desai at his residence on Friday night commented on the book launch that Pakistan not inviting the Speaker of Jammu and Kashmir was a breach of protocol.
“India will not attend the conference. In the past Pakistan has invited delegations from Kashmir,” he said, but did not specify if it was Kashmiri parliamentarians or the Speaker himself who had come to Pakistan.
In the past at a Track Two conference in Islamabad, Pakistan had declined to grant a visa to a BJP parliamentarian from the Valley.