Mind reader part of India-Pakistan foreign secretary-level talk

ISLAMABAD - The two-hour-long foreign secretary-level talks, which took place at the Pakistan Foreign Office here, included a mind reader among the officials taking part in the deliberations.

Director General (South Asia) Afrasiab Mehdi Hashmi, who sat on Pakistan Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir’s immediate left, is known for his ability to read faces and predict what they are thinking.

Mr. Hashmi had received Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao at the Chaklala Air Force base yesterday.

The high-ranking foreign service officer was also part of the Pakistani delegation led by Foreign Secretary Salmar Bashir earlier this year.

Whether he could read the Indian Foreign Secretary’s mind is any one’s guess, but the fact remains that he has met with her on several occasions, as he was posted as Deputy High Commissioner at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi. He remembers small incidents and names of people he would have met just once decades ago.

The legend goes that he actually predicted that former Pakistan President General Zia-ul-Haq would not attend the Uited Nations General Assembly meeting in 1988. He gave no explanations.

Gen Zia died in a plane crash on August 17, 1988, and then, the story developed a steam of its own that Hashmi ‘knew’

Today however, all he would have read is that the Indian delegation has come here to talk on all issues.

India will not budge on blaming Pakistan for not cracking down on terror groups and, is transparent about saying that issues like Kashmir, water and visas will be tackled simultaneously. By Smita Prakash (ANI)