Timing of meeting with Hurriyat leaders 'not totally right', admits Pakistan

New York: Pakistan has admitted that the timing of its High Commissioner's meeting with the Hurriyat leaders in New Delhi ahead of the Foreign Secretary-level talks was "perhaps not totally right".

India called off the Foreign Secretary-level talks, which were to be held in Islamabad on August 25, after Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit met Hurriyat leaders ahead of the parleys.

Read: Pakistan spoilt talks with India by meeting Hurriyat leaders, says Sushma Swaraj

Pointing out that while meetings between Pakistani diplomats and Hurriyat leaders had been a "regular practice for the last 30 years and there was noting new in it", Pakistan's National Security and Foreign Affairs Adviser Sartaj Aziz said, "In this case perhaps, the timing was not totally right because the substantial discussion on Kashmir was yet to start."

The Foreign Secretary-level meeting on August 25 was to declare the agenda (of bilateral talks), he said.

Read: Nawaz Sharif rakes up Kashmir issue at UNGA; blames India for cancelling talks

Aziz said had the request from India about not holding meeting with Hurriyat leaders ahead of the Foreign Secretary-level meeting because the timing was not right come a little earlier "probably it could have been considered."

Read: India dumps Pakistan dialogue, foreign secretary-level talks cancelled

However, in this case the "message came at a time when one Hurriyat leader was already in Pakistan's High Commission (in New Delhi)," he told Headlines Today news channel.

Aziz also welcomed Prime Minister Modi's statement at the UN General Assembly on the need for resumption of dialogue between the two countries as "encouraging".