By Muhammad Najeeb, IANS,
Islamabad : A new truck service and increasing the frequency of the bus service across the Line of Control (LoC) that divides Kashmir will be among the confidence-building measures (CBMs) to be discussed between Pakistan and India in July, a Pakistani official said Tuesday.
“We are in the process of preparing some proposals that would be discussed with Indian authorities on a date convenient to both sides,” the official told IANS here.
A Pakistani delegation will visit New Delhi in mid-July before the start of the fifth round of composite dialogue between the two countries. The date of the visit would be finalised after discussion with Indian authorities, the official added.
Pakistan and India concluded their fourth round composite dialogue when their foreign ministers met here May 21.
During their meeting they exchanged views on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir and agreed to continue discussions to build on convergences and narrow down divergences.
They also agreed to continue with the implementation of cross-LoC CBMs with a view to enhance interaction and cooperation across the LoC.
The two sides decided to increase the frequency of the Muzaffarabad-Srinagar and Rawalkot-Poonch bus services from a fortnightly to a weekly basis.
“This will be finalised in a meeting to be held between the officials of the two countries in July,” said the official, adding that the two sides will also finalise modalities for intra-Kashmir trade and truck service.
He said Pakistan was preparing more CBMs to be implemented across the LoC and hopefully India will also come up with its list of proposed CBMs.
The official said that Islamabad considers more CBMs important as, thanks to the existing CBMs, both sides have remained committed to the November 2003 ceasefire and there has been no major incident of firing across the LoC from either side.