New Delhi, June 26: The Indo-Pak Foreign Minister level talks have been postponed in view of the impending Presidential election scheduled for July 19 next. External Affairs Minister S M Krishna who was slated to travel to Islamabad for the meeting to be held in mid-July has since postponed his visit.
 According to official sources, the Minister level talks are likely to be rescheduled and will take place towards the end of August. However, the foreign secretaries of the two countries will stick to their planned engagement and hold talks here on July 4-5.
 Notwithstanding the Presidential poll reason cited by the Government behind postponement of the talks, the prevailing political conditions in Pakistan and arrest of another 26/11 Mumbai blast mastermind also seems to have forced the Indian Government to take this decision.
 Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai and his Pakistani counterpart Jalil Abbas Jilani will hold talks on peace and security, including confidence-building measures, and Jammu and Kashmir, marking the final stage of the second round of the dialogue process which was revived only last February after a long hiatus following the 26/11 Mumbai attack.
 The talks have assumed further significance as these will held in the backdrop of the arrest of an Indian 26/11 accused and his links with Pakistani militants, renewing the focus on expediting justice for the Mumbai attack victims. Abu Jindal Hamza was arrested at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here June 21 after his deportation from Saudi Arabia. Hamza, according to intelligence sources, was one of six people who were holed up in a "control room" in Karachi and directed the audacious Mumbai attack by 10 Pakistani terrorists in November 2008. The carnage left 166 people dead.
 The foreign secretary talks will be followed by the talks between the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan in Islamabad, which will focus on reviewing the achievements of the dialogue process and to map the way forward.  The political turmoil in Pakistan last week, which was triggered by the country’s Supreme Court disqualifying Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and the election of his successor, also seems to have weighed on the minds of the Indian Government to postpone Krishna's visit.
 "We are working on new dates. Other developments have taken place since then," Syed Akbaruddin, the external affairs ministry's spokesperson, said here on Tuesday. He further added that when the two sides had discussed the dates for the visit earlier, the dates for the Presidential elections had not been announced. The external affairs minister is part of the electoral college for the election of the president, he said.
 Akbaruddin indicated that the visit will now take place after the monsoon session of Parliament which is expected to end in the third week of August. "We are looking at dates in August," he said.
 Trying to quell doubts about the reasons behind the postponement of Mr Krishna’s Pakistan visit, he added that one should not read too much into the postponement of the visit and stressed that it was primarily due to scheduling issues. "It's not reflective of substantive problems," he said.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 26 Jun 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 26 Jun 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 27 Jun 2012 00:00:00 IST