Pak Didn’t Hand Any Baloch Dossier in Egypt, Says PM

Seeking to allay ongoing controversy on Indo-Pak Joint Statement signed in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has told Parliament that Pakistan did not hand any dossier to India on Balochistan when he met his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raz Gilani on July 16 in Egypt.

Intervening in a debate in Lok Sabha, Singh said that no such dossier was given when the joint statement was signed in Egypt which delinked Islamabad’s action on terror from the composite dialogue process.

It should be noted that the controversial statement included a mention of threats to Balochistan, a Pakistani province, for the first time in a bilateral document between the two countries.

Manmohan Singh was responding to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Yashwant Sinha’s contention that some Pakistani leaders have seized upon the reference to Balochistan.

Sinha alluded to reports in Pakistan that Gilani gave Manmohan Singh a dossier on India’s alleged role in fomenting insurgency in Pakistan’s southwest province.