India yet to send formal proposal for next round of talks: Pak FO

Welcoming External Affairs Minister SM Krishna's statement that the next foreign secretary level talks between India and Pakistan would take place soon, Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman, Abdul Basit has said New Delhi has still not sent any formal proposal for the high level deliberations.
"The statement made by Indian External Affairs Minister, S M Krishna is really encouraging and Pakistan welcomes it but it was his personal desire not the official stance," Basit told The Dawn.
Basit also stressed that both countries must have a 'mutual understanding' while proceeding for further talks.
Earlier, talking to reporters on the sidelines of a function in New Delhi, Krishna had indicated that a team of Indian delegates headed by Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao might visit Islamabad for the next round of talks.
"We have already taken the initiative. Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh is in good faith. Provided the backdrop of having talks at the level of foreign secretary," Krishna had said.
"The foreign secretary of Pakistan came here, and then, perhaps it is time for the foreign secretary of India to go to Pakistan," he added.

Kidnapped British boy found safe in Pakistan

Akila Naqqash holds a picture of her five-year-old son Sahil Saeed, in Oldham, Manchester, England, on March 4

A five-year-old British boy who was kidnapped in Pakistan earlier this month has been found safe, the British High Commission said Tuesday. The commission did not say when or where Sahil Saeed was found. It issued a statement thanking the police in the Pakistani town of Jhelum for the boy's return.
Sahil, a British citizen of Pakistani descent, was on the last day of a two-week vacation in Pakistan before he was to return home to Oldham, in northern England.
Gunmen barged into Sahil's grandmother's home in Jhelum, in the eastern province of Punjab, and took him at gunpoint on March 3. They reportedly demanded a ransom of 10 million rupees ($118,000).
Soon after the abduction, Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the captors included someone close to the family.

"There is someone who is very close to the family because the way the situation happened, the way the entry was made," Malik told reporters.

Musharraf hints at comeback through 'registered' All Pakistan Muslim League

Former Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf has hinted of a come back to the country's political stage through a party named the All Pakistan Muslim League.

Talking to media persons before a lecture in Seattle, Musharraf said his party has been registered, but reiterated that he would return to Pakistan only when he believes there is enough support for him.
"I think the party has been registered. If I have to just go there and join the political fray and be involved in accusations and counter-accusations...like most politicians are doing, then I am not interested in that kind of politics,"The Seattle time quoted Musharraf, as saying.

Later,talking to an audience of hundreds of people, largely Pakistani Americans, in Bellevue, Musharraf said the Taliban's brand of Islamic extremism poses a serious threat to the nation.

"We need to ask ourselves, do we or don't we want a Taliban and Al Qaeda culture in Pakistan ... because every action then flows from that decision," Musharraf said.

Reports regarding Musharraf, who is currently living in London on an 'unannounced' exile, coming back to Pakistan have been doing the rounds for the past year or so with the former general saying he would return if the country wants him to do so.

Musharraf, however, has not set a date for his return to Pakistan.

Some believe that he may never come back as he fears being prosecuted for imposing emergency in the state through unconstitutional steps in 2007.