Answering questions at a meeting with media here, Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan expressed surprise that the Indian circles had expressed "disappointment" over the suggestion. The Indian External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh had said that the Kashmir issue was not like "a 100-metre race to be completed in a fixed time."
The spokesman said that a composite dialogue in pursuance to the wishes of the leaders of the two countries had been opened and was on the right direction and there should not be scepticism about the future of these talks. To keep these talks on course, he said, Pakistan desired that a timeframe for its solution should be agreed to.
He said that President Musharraf was anxious to resolve the problem prevailing in Darfur (Sudan) and, like other Muslim leaders, was concerned about the situation there and desired that it should not be allowed to worsen.
He said that the President had a telephonic conversation with President Omer Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan and underlined the need for implementation of a joint statement issued by Khartoum and the United Nations Secretary-General. The statement, he added, provided solutions to all aspects of the problem..
Masood said that the President had also talked to Secretary-General Kofi Anan and US Secretary of State about his conversation with the Sudanese leader and expressed himself against slapping any sanctions against Khartoum.
The questions was raised here last week during the visit of German Vice-Chancellor and Foreign Minister J Fischer when he asked President Musharraf to use his personal good offices with the Sudanese leaders to get the current clashes between what he described as religious militias and the South Sudanese ethnic minority.
Besides him, the leaders of Sweden and Finland had also raised the Darfur issues with President Musharraf recently. The President, the spokesman said, had conveyed to all parties that the problem should be solved through political process.
About the kidnapping of two Pakistanis in Iraq, the spokesman said that all efforts were being made to obtain their release.
He confirmed that two staff members of Pakistan's mission in Afghanistan, travelling to Herat, were stopped at a check-post in that country and after inspection of their papers were allowed to resume their journey. He denied that those persons were missing or were in Afghanistan's custody.
However, he said that the number of Pakistanis still in Afghan jails was estimated to be around 400, and Islamabad was working to obtain their release.
Similarly, he said, some Pakistanis are still in American custody at its the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base (Cuba).