[DAWN] Responding to the recent breakdown of a scheduled meeting between Indo-Pak foreign secretaries, Adviser to Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said that the timing of Pakistani High Commissioner Abdul Basit's meeting with Hurriyat leader Shabir Shah was 'perhaps not right'.Considering the Hindoos took it as a slap in the face, he's probably right.
At the same time, Aziz said the timing of India's message expressing reservations against the meeting was 'not right' either.
"So, really, y'see, it's not all our fault..."
While talking about the meeting between Basit and the Hurriyat Leader, in an interview given to an Indian news channel, Aziz said that, "This has been a regular practice for the last 30 years and there was nothing new in it."
He added that "in this case perhaps the timing was not totally right because substantial discussions on Kashmir were yet to start. This meeting on August 24 (Foreign Secretary level meeting between India and Pakistan) was to declare the agenda and so on so forth."
Aziz further said "I think if the request (from India) had come earlier, about the timing not being right, probably it could have been considered. But, in this case the message came at a time when one Hurriyat leader was already in Pakistan's high commission (in New Delhi); hence there was nothing to respond."