New Delhi, Jan 19 (Inditop.com) The Ministry of External Affairs will decide on action on the Central Information Commission’s order to disclose the file notings related to the Sharm-el-Sheikh India-Pakistan joint statement after examining the judgment.
Following two Right to Information (RTI) petitions, Information Commissioner Annapurna Dixit in a Jan 4 order had asked the MEA to show the files related to the July 16 joint statement issued at Sharm-el-Sheikh. The ministry earlier failed to provide the names of the officials who drafted the statement, as well as file notings.
It directed that the process of inspection of the files by the petitioner should be completed by Jan 25.
According to sources, the ministry will only contemplate the next step after officials get their hands on the order. “We are still ascertaining facts,” said an official.
S.C. Agrawal had filed two RTI petitions in July last year before the MEA and Prime Minister’s Office asking for a copy of the joint statement, the names of the officers who drafted the statement and file notings.
The PMO subsequently transferred its RTI application to the MEA.
The July 16, 2008, statement was issued after a meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousaf Raza Gilani at the Egyptian sea-side resort, on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Summit held there.
The joint statement was criticised for de-linking the issue of the resumption of dialogue with Pakistan, from Islamabad doing enough to catch the masterminds of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, as well as to dismantle the entire terror infrastructure.
Indian opposition parties were also strongly opposed to the joint statement, as it mentioned Balochistan. Pakistan claimed then that India was involved in fomenting unrest in Balochistan, which New Delhi has strongly denied.
In a bid to defend the government from the barrage of opposition, the then foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon said that the only criticism possible against the joint statement was that it was a case of “bad drafting”.
