Pak to formally respond to Indian dossier within a week

Islamabad, Jan 15 (PTI) Pakistan will formally respond
within a week to India's dossier on the Mumbai attacks by
describing the information provided in it as "scanty and
insufficient" and by renewing its offer for a joint probe into
the terrorist strike, a media report said Thursday.

"The Pakistani response is almost prepared after
prolonged consultations here among the Foreign Office,
interior ministry and other security agencies and it is being
given a finishing touch," a senior official who did not want
to be named told the pro-establishment The Nation daily.

The response will be handed over to India in a week after
it is approved by the President and Prime Minister, he said.
The dossier had been thoroughly examined and the
Pakistani response could be summarised by saying that "the
Indians would be told to extend concrete evidence to Islamabad
and not information", the official said.

The response will also describe "the so-called Indian
evidence as scanty and insufficient," the daily said.

Pakistan would repeat its offer for a joint probe into
the Mumbai attacks with "a plea that it was the only workable
solution" to the standoff between the two countries, he said.

The official declined to share details of the Pakistani
response but said that it described the "Indian information
(as) not something that could be produced as admissible before
the court as a piece of evidence".

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, in his address to
parliament on Tuesday, had said material provided by India
constituted information and not evidence.

Reacting strongly to Gilani's statement, Indian External
Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee Wednesday accused Pakistan
of evasiveness.

Meanwhile another Pakistani official said instead of
indulging in a blame game, India should accept Pakistan's
offer of a joint investigation. He said if Pakistan were not
serious in cooperating with India on the Mumbai attacks, it
would not have made such an offer.

The official added that the world community too is asking
for joint work by Pakistan and India to trace those involved
in the Mumbai attacks. PTI RHL
DEP