After Pakistan failed to sign the liberalised visa regime with India during the home secretary level talks, home secretary R.K. Singh said that the visa pact with Pakistan will be signed at a “convenient’’ time.
The Union home ministry clearly attributed the failure to ink the pact with Pakistan last week to pending internal consultations in Islamabad and that country’s interior minister’s desire for political participation in the exercise.
“An impression was also conveyed that interior minister of Pakistan (Rehman Malik) wants both the home ministers to be present when it is signed,” Singh told reporters here when asked the reason for the failure to sign the pact, reported Asian Age.
Singh said the Pakistani delegation told the Indian team that after the internal approvals, they would seek New Delhi’s convenient date to sign the agreement. “I told them that when you seek our convenience, we will see and consult to determine our convenience,” he said.
“Visits by ministers at Central government level are decided at the highest level in consultation with the MEA and others involved,” home minister P. Chidambaram, who was also present at the meet, said.
