Pak minister surprised over objection to meeting Hurriyat

New Delhi, Jul 27 (PTI) Visiting Pakistan Foreign
Minister Hina Rabbani Khar Wednesday made light of her meeting
with Kashmiri separatists here Tuesday and wondered how it
could be considered offensive in India.
"I don't think this (meeting) was anything new. Every
Pakistan Foreign Minister who has been visiting India has been
engaging with them," Khar told TV channels.
Her meeting, soon after her arrival and even before
scheduled talks with her counterpart S M Krishna, has not gone
down with the foreign policy establishment here, which thought
of it as a bad idea.
Khar asked whether meeting an important stakeholder
goes against the democratic values cherished in India. "I
don't see how that should be offensive."
The Minister said the question of terrorism and its
manifestation being brought up in India looks "dated" to her
and drew a comparison between Samjhauta train blats case and
the slow-paced Mumbai terror trial in her country.
"The whole question of terrorism, and its
manifestations and the way it is brought up in India by the
your media in someway looks dated to me," Khar told a TV news
channel.
Explaining her statement, she said, "I think that
today if there is a country in the world facing this problem
as a challenge on daily basis, whose people are been affected
by it on a hourly basis, it is Pakistan.
"So it is in Pakistan's own interest to deal with this
dragon head on."
On the issue of Mumbai attacks-related trial in
Pakistan, she said "trials are a judicial process which take
time. It is in Pakistan's interest that this trial happens
quickly...
"Many Pakistanis would give the example, for instance
of Samjhauta Express, which was four and half years before
that and if you compare the progress of two trials, I am sure
you will agree with me that this has had more progress."
She quickly added, "Let me however reassure you
that...the judicial commission which is due in India is likely
to come very soon and that could be a major step in the
process going forward."
Meanwhile asked about her becoming the youngest
foreign minister of Pakistan, she said she has had two terms
of being an elected member of Parliament.
"I don't know how you measure experience. If
experience is only going to be measured by your age, then I
may not be the oldest person around." PTI VMR
KAP