Islamabad: Pakistan has reportedly set the middle of this month as the "cut off" time for India and Bhutan to respond to its proposal to host the 12th South Asian Association of Regional Conference SAARC summit in Islamabad from January 11 to 13 next year.

Despite India's assertion that Pakistan cannot set a deadline for the SAARC members to respond to proposed dates of the summit, Islamabad asked the SAARC secretariat in Kathmandu to confirm participation of leaders of member states by mid November on the dates proposed by it for the summit, a media report said.

Islamabad made the request to the SAARC secretariat earlier this month maintaining that it needed time to prepare for the summit, Pakistan daily 'Dawn' quoted officials here as saying.

Quoting unnamed officials, the paper said that officials at Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs expected that New Delhi would most likely respond after a civilian government was in place in Islamabad.

"But they say that the Summit could take place even if New Delhi and Bhutan confirmed their participation latest by mid-December," it said.

Reports of the mid November cut off time follow assertion by External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha that Pakistan's plan to fix a deadline would not work as SAARC functioned on the basis of consensus.

"Nobody can set a deadline. SAARC works on the basis of consensus" he said on November 12 in Seoul where he took part in the meeting of the second ministerial conference of Community of Democracies.

On Monday, Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan said that Pakistan contemplated to fix a cut off date for India and Bhutan to respond to its proposed dates. He said all other countries in the seven-member grouping have confirmed their participation.

PTI