PM to meet Musharraf on Sept. 25

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 5. India today confirmed that the meeting between the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, and the Pakistani President, General Pervez Musharraf, will take place on September 25, but expressed pessimism about the outcome of the talks.

The spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), while disapproving of the latest attempts of Pakistan to internationalise the Kashmir issue, put the onus on Islamabad to make the dialogue in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly session productive.

``Pakistan has to do something about it,'' the spokesperson said while justifying the observations made by the Minister of State for External Affairs, Mr. Omar Abdullah, who is currently in South Africa.

The Minister had publicly questioned the utility of the coming dialogue between the Mr. Vajpayee and Gen. Musharraf against the backdrop of Pakistan's attempt to queer the pitch on Kashmir.

Endorsing the Minister's remarks, the spokesperson said that Mr. Abdullah's observations were ``completely justified''.

She also rejected the statement by the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) on Kashmir. The OIC, she said had ``no locus standi and we reject such comments and postulations''.

Elaborating on the Indian standpoint on the Indo- Pakistan dialogue, the spokesperson reiterated that New Delhi rejected an approach to the talks which focused on one particular issue. ``We do not shy away from the Kashmir issue but reject a unifocal approach.'' Referring to the upcoming talks, she said that ``all outstanding issues will be discussed in the framework provided by the Shimla agreement.''

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