Pakistan to discuss India's offer for talks today

Islamabad: Top officials in the Pakistan Foreign Office will on Wednesday get into a huddle to discuss threadbare India's offer of peace talks. The session is expected to firm up a strategy on the talks offer. (Read: India proposes talks with Pakistan)

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi will chair the inter-ministerial meeting to assess the offer.

The meeting is expected to be attended by representatives of the Interior and Defence ministries and the intelligence agencies, including the ISI.   

The Pakistan High Commissioner will brief Qureshi on India's offer of talks at the meeting.

While Pakistan is insistent on resumption of composite dialogue, India is reluctant to be bogged down by nomenclature.

India's offer for talks, conveyed by Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao last month, was the subject of in-house consultations at the Foreign Office on Tuesday. India has offered February 18 and 25 as possible dates for a meeting of the Foreign Secretaries. (Read: India offers Pak dates this month for talks)

Pak in diplomatic dilemma?

• Has the Indian invitation for talks put Pakistan into a diplomatic dilemma?
• Accepting India's offer compromises its stance on Composite Dialogue, while rejecting the offer may invite international pressure with world leaders calling Islamabad as 'a blocker'.
• A top Pakistan daily quoted a Pakistani diplomat describing the talks' offer as a 'bait' that has put the Foreign Ministry in a fix.