Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit on Thursday said the bilateral peace process with India stands "suspended" and indicated that NIA investigators will not be allowed to visit there for the probe into the Pathankot attack.
Basit said at a media interaction in Delhi that the dialogue was presently suspended, something India has been reluctant to address.
Both these claims were later rubbished by External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup.
The Pakistan envoy poured cold water on India's expectations that an NIA team would be allowed to visit Pakistan for the Pathankot terror strike probe on the basis of reciprocity, a Pakistani Joint Investigation Team (JIT) having just concluded a visit to India.
"The whole investigation is not about the question of reciprocity in my view. It is more about extending cooperation or our two countries cooperating with each other to get to the bottom of the incident," Basit said.
MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup asserted that before the JIT's visit both sides had agreed that it would be on the basis of reciprocity.
"MEA would like to clarify that on 26 March, 2016, before the visit of the JIT, the Indian High Commission formally conveyed to the Pakistani Foreign Ministry that the Terms of Reference 'are broadly agreed to with the proviso that these would be on the basis of reciprocity and followed in accordance with extant legal provisions," he said.
To contradict Basit's statement on the peace process, Swarup read out a statement made by Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nafees in which he had said:"I have stated this many times that both countries are in contact with each other and it has been reiterated from both sides that modalities are being worked out."
Raises 'K' word: Basit also raised the Kashmir issue, saying it is the root cause of mistrust between the two sides.
"Let's be realistic. It is the Jammu and Kashmir dispute that is the root cause of mutual distrust and other bilateral issues. Therefore, its fair and just resolution, as per the aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, is imperative. Attempts to put it on the back burner will be counterproductive,"
Basit opened his interaction with a written statement in which he made a pointed reference to a former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan
Jadhav, currently in detention in Pakistan on charges of spying.
Jadhav's arrest "irrefutably corroborates what Pakistan has been saying all along", he said alluding to Pakistani charges that India was fomenting trouble in the restive province of Balochistan.
(With PTI Inputs)
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