Meeting with Hurriyat leader probably mistimed, says Sartaj Aziz

Adviser to PM on Foreign Affairs says Indians could have informed Pakistan if they had apprehensions about the meeting

KARACHI: Adviser to the Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz has said that the timing of a meeting between Hurriyat leader Shabir Shah and Pakistani High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit was 'probably not right.'

While talking to Indian channel Headlines Today on Saturday, Aziz said although such meetings were regular for decades now, the timing could have been better this time.

“This has been a regular practice since last 30 years and I don’t think there is anything new about it,” he said. “In this case, the timing was probably not right because a substantial discussion on Kashmir was yet to start.”

This meeting on August 25 was to declare the agenda, he added.

However, Aziz argued, if Indians had apprehensions, they could have informed them, earlier.

“I think if the request had come earlier that the timing is not right then probably it could have been reconsidered,” he said. “But in this case the message came when one of the Kashmiri leaders was already in the High Commission.”