No backchannel talks between Pakistan and India: Pak Foreign Office

The bilateral talks between India and Pakistan in recent years have constant, and severe, strain owing to incidents including the Balakot airstrike, the abrogation of Article 370, as well as the construction of India's construction of hydro-electric projects Kishanganga and Ratle.

Islamabad: Pakistan said on Thursday that no backchannel talks were being held between Islamabad and New Delhi. "At this stage, there is no backchannel between Pakistan and India," Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said at the weekly media briefing here while responding to a question.

India has been maintaining that it desires normal neighbourly relations with Pakistan while insisting that the onus is on Islamabad to create an environment free of terror and hostility for such an engagement. The ties between India and Pakistan came under severe strain after India's warplanes pounded a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist training camp in Balakot in Pakistan in February 2019 in response to the Pulwama terror attack.

The relations further deteriorated after India in August 2019 announced withdrawing special powers of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcation of the state into two union territories. Baloch also alleged that India's Kishanganga and Ratle Hydroelectric Projects had been developed in violation of the bilateral Indus Water Treaty.

She said that proceedings of a case were currently underway before a Court of Arbitration in The Hague and a neutral expert pertained to the dispute on the Kishanganga and Ratle Hydroelectric Projects. "Pakistan believes that these projects were developed in violation of the provisions of the Indus Waters Treaty. So, Pakistan is ably represented in these proceedings; we believe we have a solid case, she said.

Baloch also said the latest report by EU Disinfo Lab once again corroborates Pakistan's long-held position about some Indian media outlets' unrelenting smear campaign against Islamabad. To a question about Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Mariano Grossi's visit to Pakistan, she said during his trip, there was no discussion on Pakistan's nuclear programme which is "defensive in nature". (PTI)