- New Delhi (PTI) -- A web
newspaper run by a senior Pakistani journalist has published a "secret"
document purportedly containing minutes of meetings between US and Pakistani
officials and issues which, it claims, are to be raised during President
Pervez Musharraf's forthcoming visit to United States.
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- The 'South Asia Tribune' claimed the document, a five-page
'non-paper', was "leaked to the media" apparently to embarass
Musharraf as he prepared for his visit. It also printed the full document,
claiming that the issues would be discussed at the Pak-US Joint Working
Group (JWG) during the talks.
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- The document showed such a wide range of relations between
the two countries that the US presence would become inevitable at every
security point, the paper, edited by former editor of 'The News' Shaheen
Sehbai, said.
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- "Releasing such sensitive papers to the media, specially
involving US-Pak relations, also indicated the extent to which some officials
were feeling betrayed by Musharraf's policies", it said.
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- The paper defined the 'non-paper', in diplomatic parlance,
as "the text of language agreed between two sides in formal meetings".
It also contains informal minutes which are exchanged to firm up positions
and keep track of the specific issues to be discussed in specialised group
sessions.
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- According to the document, 16 items are listed as 'Action
Items for the USG' (US Government) and another 14 as 'Action Items for
GOP' (Govt of Pakistan).
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- Interestingly, the main subjects include US seeking Pakistani
assistance in the probe into the hijack of Indian Airlines flight IC-814
to Kandahar.
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- The subjects also include counter-terrorism methods,
training and provision of sophisticated equipment to police, extradition
of persons wanted by either governments, the issue of Pakistani nationals
in American custody, exchange of information to probe and prosecute organisations
of smugglers and a draft Pakistani legislation on money laundering.
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- The paper said the document showed that the range of
US-Pak cooperation was "so wide that almost at every security point,
US presence would become inevitable, either in the form of physical troops
or machines, cameras or spying equipment relaying images and data to US
officials sitting close by somewhere".
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- Another subject was improvement of law enforcement machinery
in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), where the main
anti-Al Qaeda operations are currently focussed. This issue would also
be part of the JWG discussion, according to the document published.
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- A key area of cooperation was the exchange of wanted
persons by the two governments, besides Pakistani Government agreeing to
take steps to speed up trial of four fugitives wanted by US for Panam plane
crash in 1973, the paper added.
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- Copyright © 2002 Press Trust of India Ltd. All rights
reserved.
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