Thaindian News

Islamabad, Nov 11 (IANS) Pakistan welcomes India’s readiness for a broad-ranging engagement and has agreed to finalise a calendar of meetings at various levels, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said here Friday.

Both sides also agreed to convene technical working groups prior to the meeting of the Pakistan-India Joint Commission, a foreign office statement quoted Khar as saying.

She said Pakistan has positively evaluated the talks between Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh at Maldives on the sidelines of the two-day SAARC summit.

The talks, the minister said, had contributed to a seriousness of purpose to the process of engagement, with both sides reaffirming their commitment to the pursuit of peace and discussing all outstanding issues including Jammu and Kashmir in a result-oriented manner.

Both the leaders noted terrorism as a common problem and said that instead of remaining mired in accusations and counter accusations, the real way forward was “cooperation”, Khar stated.

She said that Paksistan and India’s interior and home secretaries had been mandated to discuss counter-terrorism and anti-narcotics measures.

Issues like 26/11, the Samjhauta Express blast and other terror related matters needed to be addressed at the interior/home ministry level, Khar said.

The statement also said that Interior Minister Rehman Malik was prepared to visit New Delhi and was awaiting the dates for the visit from India.

Pakistan also awaited dates for the visit of a judicial commission from India on the 26/11 attack, it added.