I will not visit India for ‘leisure trip’ but only for ‘meaningful dialogue’: Qureshi

ISLAMABAD - Blaming India for ‘cherry picking’ issues during the foreign ministerial level talks earlier this week, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said that he would visit New Delhi for the next level of talks only if agrees to have a ’serious and meaningful dialogue’ on all contentious issues.

Talking to reporters at the Foreign Office here, Qureshi continued his rant, and blamed India of adopting a stubborn attitude during the July 15 talks.

“I will not visit India for a leisure trip, I would only go if India is ready for a meaningful, result-oriented and constructive talks and the environment is conducive for the parleys,” The Dawn quoted Qureshi, as saying.

“We listened to their concerns about Mumbai and terrorism and they too should have listened to our reservations. If they are answerable to their people, we too as a democracy are answerable to parliament and people of Pakistan,” he added.

Replying to a question about his claims that the Indian External Affairs Minister, S M Krishna, was receiving dictates from New Delhi over phone from New Delhi during the talks, Qureshi, took his accusations back and said it was actually one of the Indian officials who kept receiving instructions and updating his seniors back home.

Krishna has already rejected Qureshi’s charge that he excused himself from talks several times to receive instructions on the phone from New Delhi, describing it as an ‘extraordinary’ remark.

“I never used any telephone. I was totally cut-off from India. It is an extraordinary statement. I did not speak to Delhi. In diplomatic parlance we are always in touch,” Krishna had said soon after returning back to New Delhi from Islamabad.(ANI)