Peace process format on agenda at India-Pakistan Talks
By Maria A Khan - Pakistan Times Special Correspondent

ISLAMABAD: Senior officials from India and Pakistan began talks in Islamabad with a possible restructuring of the complex and slow-moving peace process between the nuclear rivals likely on the agenda.

India's top civil servant at the foreign ministry Shyam Saran and his Pakistani counterpart Riaz Mohammed Khan are reviewing the progress of the ongoing "composite dialogue" launched by India and Pakistan in January 2004.

"The talks have started," a Pakistani foreign ministry official said on Thursday. A statement on the talks may be issued later.

Symbolic Steps

The peace process has so far produced a number of largely symbolic steps, including a historic bus service across the divided Himalayan territory of Kashmir and the resumption of sporting ties.

The two countries also recently agreed to set up a hotline and other measures to stop an accidental nuclear exchange. But progress has been sluggish on central issues such as Kashmir itself.

Other issues covered by the peace dialogue include a decades-long military standoff on a glacier high up in the mountains of Kashmir and boosting trade and cultural ties.

Change in Format

Officials said privately that the two sides were also expected to discuss changing the format of the process, under which each individual topic is discussed by relevant ministries at different times.

Instead India is likely to propose setting up ministerial commissions on each side to discuss all subjects at the same time and cut down on the number of meetings.

India's Saran, who arrived in Lahore on Wednesday was quoted by the Press Trust of India as saying that the composite dialogue would continue "but perhaps in somewhat of a changed format." He did not elaborate, the news agency said.

Saran is due to return to New Delhi today, Friday.

Pakistani officials have previously complained that India is slowing up the process, while India continues to blame Pakistan for supporting activists who have waged a 16-year insurgency in India held-Kashmir.

Agenda for Musharraf-Manmohan Talks

The officials may also set the agenda for a rare meeting between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on September 14.

The last time the two leaders met -- to coincide with an India-Pakistan cricket match in New Delhi in April -- they jointly declared the peace process "irreversible".

The Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers are also due to meet later this year, between October 3 and 5 in Islamabad.

Analyst Tariq Fatimi, a former Pakistani diplomat said Thursday's talks were an "important event".

"It will be an occasion for us to judge how serious and sincere the Indians are in the peace process," he said.

"The two sides will also exchange notes on the forthcoming meeting of Pakistani and Indian leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, expectantly on Sep-14."●