ALTHOUGH Pakistan and India have once again signaled their desire to mend fences, the stalemate in talks persists as the foreign secretaries and other top officials of the the nuclear-armed neighbors have failed to rejuvenate the peace process. The diplomats of the arch-rivals in the Subcontinent each described their private parleys in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meetings Monday as “candid and useful”. They, however, stopped short of announcing a resumption of full-fledged dialogue simply because serious doubts and apprehensions prevailed. And they blamed each other's country for the slow progress in negotiations. However, it augurs well to learn that Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has emphasized his willingness to to go to India to negotiate. He is right when he says that “Pakistan wants a resumption of the dialogue, not because of any weakness of ours”, but, as he says, it is Pakistan's “considered opinion” that the talks are the only sensible way forward. There are no two opinions about it, but the “sensible way forward” must be followed in its true perspective. Though, at present, no serious tensions prevail on the borders between the two countries, and travel and business continue uninterrupted, the cloud of last November's deadly assault on Mumbai hangs over Indo-Pak relations. While New Delhi has been pressing Islamabad to bring the culprits to book and hand them over to India, Pakistani authorities have time and again said that they will take strong action on their soil against those responsible for, to quote Qureshi, the “heinous crime”. At this stage, what is worrisome is the persistent dilly-dallying on the part of Pakistani authorities over India's demand for “strenuously prosecuting” Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, leader of Jamat-ud-Dawa. It should not go unnoticed that pressured by the United States and others abroad, Pakistan has acknowledged that much of the Mumbai plot originated on its soil. As a backdrop to this, India has expressed its serious and continuing apprehension about terrorism and extremist groups in Pakistan. Now, the ball is in Pakistan's court, as there is need for “deeper, sustained and meaningful relations” between the two countries. __
