Islamabad: Contesting External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha's assertion that dates for the next South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) summit in Islamabad have not been fixed, Pakistan on October 19 accused India of putting obstacles in holding meetings of the seven-nation grouping in the past.

The Indian minister's statement was "disingenuous to say the least", Pakistan foreign office said in a statement.

It claimed that the SAARC council of ministers meeting held in Kathmandu in August this year reached a consensus to hold the 12th SAARC summit in January 2003 at Islamabad.

"Thereafter, Pakistan had proposed January 11-13 for the summit meeting within the band of 15 days agreed upon by the council of ministers. These specific dates were conveyed to SAARC secretariat," it said.

"The dates were also discussed by the SAARC foreign ministers in an informal meeting in New York on September 16 and it was agreed that all the members would confirm the acceptability of these dates within a week's time that is by 23rd of September," it said.

"Therefore, any suggestion that no dates had been proposed and that no invitation had been received is incorrect, if not malafide. India knows well that formal invitations are issued only after the dates have been agreed upon by all members," the statement said.

It also said that Sinha's remarks that one country consistently tried to put obstacles in the way of the summit was "self-incriminating". "It is India that has always created obstacles in the way of SAARC summits. The delay of more than two years in the convening of the 11th SAARC summit in Kathmandu and the manner in which the sixth SAARC summit in Colombo in 1991 had to be postponed at the last moment because of Indian are cases in point," it said.

PTI