New Delhi
8 May 2008
A team of officials from the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi
will soon visit Mumbai for identifying suitable properties for opening a consulate there.
"A two-member team can be expected to visit Mumbai this week," a source from the
Pakistani High Commission here told this newspaper.
Amplifying what a Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman told reporters in Islamabad
earlier in the day, the source said Government of Pakistan would ideally like to run its
consulate from Jinnah House, which was built by Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali
Jinnah.
(Pakistani Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mohammad Sadiq on Thursday told reporters
Pakistan's request to India to allow the opening of its consulate in Jinnah House
remains.)
The source from the Pakistani High Commission here said Government of Pakistan
would "rent or hire [a property] in the first instance." This runs contrary to New Delhi's
suggestion that Islamabad buy property outright.
A Ministry of External Affairs source pointed out the Indian consulate building in Karachi
is a property of Government of India, adding the delay in reopening of the Indian
consulate in Karachi and Pakistani consulate in Mumbai is due to Government of
Pakistan's reluctance to buy property in Mumbai.
The source from the Pakistani High Commission dismissed certain reports in the Indian
media, which suggested Government of Pakistan has purchased a plot of land near the
airport from the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA).
According to the reports, the Government of Maharashtra has identified a plot measuring
4,000 square metres in Kalina, near the domestic and international airports.
The running feud over reopening of consulates comes ahead of the May 21 talks
between Minister of External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee and his Pakistani counterpart
Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi in Islamabad. Official-level talks between Foreign
Secretary Shivshankar Menon and his Pakistani counterpart will take place on May 20.
Jinnah House, which stands on a property in the posh Malabar Hills area of Mumbai and
was built in 1936, holds deep sentimental value for the people of Pakistan. Dina Wadia,
the only child of Jinnah, and her industrialist son Nusli Wadia recently filed a petition
under the Right to Information Act with India's Central Information Commission to obtain
all documents pertaining to Jinnah House. The Ministry of External Affairs said revealing
the documents could affect ties with Pakistan.
After its request for Jinnah House was turned down, Pakistan zeroed in on a flat in Mittal
Chambers in the year 2005 but that proposal fell through after protests from some
sections of society. The flat in Mittal Chambers belonged to Vivek Singhal, brother of
Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) supremo Ashok Singhal.
The Indian consulate in Karachi and the Pakistani consulate in Mumbai are not operating
since 1992. Both countries want their respective consulates to reopen simultaneously.
New Delhi has maintained there is a large demand for visas from Karachi and other
places in Sindh province of Pakistan. Pakistani nationals from these places have to
apply for Indian visa at the Indian High Commission in Islamabad following the closure
of Indian consulate in Karachi.
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