Pak to formally respond to Indian dossier within a week

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 today.

"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, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee yesterday 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.