Top civil-military huddle 'finalises agenda' of India dialogue

Army chief General Raheel Sharif, ISI chief call on PM Nawaz Sharif at PM House in Islamabad

ISLAMABAD: A meeting between the civil-military leadership has finalised the agenda of the upcoming national security advisor-level talks scheduled to be held on August 23 in New Delhi, sources said.

Army chief General Raheel Sharif called on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at the PM House in Islamabad on Tuesday to deliberate on the proposed agenda.

Officially, the PM House stated that “matters relating to the internal security situation of the country were discussed in the meeting."

However, sources said the agenda has been finalised.

Some participants pushed for issues such as Samjhota Express, involvement in Balochistan and violations across the LoC to be discussed in an upfront manner with India. It was decided, however, that while these issues should be discussed, the focus should remain on the resumption of secretary-level talks.

The civil and military leadership discussed various options in this regard, sources said.

Director-General Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt Gen Rizwan Akhtar, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz and Special Assistant Tariq Fatemi also attended the meeting.

Read: Sartaj Aziz to visit India for talks on August 23

Other issues, including the country’s internal security, the Pur Aman Balochistan programme, law and order situation in Karachi and relations with the Afghan government after Afghan leaders' recent outbursts, also came under discussion.

The participants hoped a recent meeting with Afghan leaders would give positive signals to them as Pakistan was already doing enough to curb terrorism.

Meanwhile, sources added, the civil-military leadership was warned about further attacks on government and security installations. The meeting agreed that only good intelligence could foil such attacks.