Nato reconfirmed outside interference in Balochistan:

Pakistan received credible information regarding outside interference in Balochistan and the Nato reconfirmed it and hinted that arms and ammunition were being smuggled to Balochistan from Afghanistan.

Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit Khan said this in a news briefing at the Karachi Press Club on Wednesday.He said that the Indo-Pak dialogue was suspended after the Mumbai attacks but efforts were under way to restart confidence building measures (CBMs) between the two neighbouring countries.

He said there was a need of shifting the paradigm from conflict to cooperation as far as the relations between Pakistan and India were concerned.He said both Pakistani and Indian prime ministers in their meeting at Sharm el-Sheikh agreed and emphasised the need for initiating dialogue between the two countries.

ìWe want to restart the CBMs,î Abdul Basit said and added that prime ministers of both the countries also agreed on talks between foreign secretaries in New York in September this year and issues like Sir Creek, terrorism and Kashmir would come under discussion.

He said there should be no point-scoring on the Mumbai attacks as Pakistan itself was a target of terrorism and during the current year, about 340 people had lost their lives in 26 suicide attacks in the country.

To a query on increase in the strength of the US personnel at Islamabad’s mission, the spokesman said 1,000 US Marines who will be coming to Pakistan will be deployed at the US mission in Islamabad. He said there was no restriction on the number of personnel that a foreign mission could station at its mission but it was done through mutual understanding.

Responding to a question regarding the US-India defence agreement, he said Pakistan was keeping a vigilant eye on the agreement and it was not unaware of its defence. He, however, said Pakistan did not want to join the arms race in the region.

Basit said Pakistan wants stability in Afghanistan because stable Afghanistan is in Pakistanís interest. Kalashnikov culture, heroin and human trafficking, all have links to Afghanistan, he said, adding Pakistan had planned trilateral talks with all the neighbouring countries of the region for the resolution of these issues, which followed 30 years of war in Afghanistan.

He said Pakistan has political/strategic relations with China but now it wanted economic ties with this time-tested friend. President Asif Ali Zardari had visited China thrice and now he would visit China in the current month, he said.

He said the Friends of Democratic Pakistan would meet in Istanbul on Aug 25. He said the United Nations Commission constituted for probe into the assassination of Benazir Bhutto could call Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf. About Dr Aafia Siddiqui, he said: “We are ready to cooperate with her but also want cooperation from her side.” He added that the government had offered to bear her full legal expenses.