Islamabad: Nearly a week after India and Pakistan expelled each other's top diplomats, they have agreed in principle to grant visas to new Deputy High Commissioners appointed by them.

It has been agreed that assignment visas of senior Indian diplomat T C A Raghavan and Pakistan's Munawar Saeed Bhatti would be cleared on February 18, Vikram Misri, acting Charge d' Affaires (CDA) of the Indian High Commission in Islamabad said.

He said Raghavan and Bhatti would simultaneously be granted visas, after which they would decide about dates to take over their respective assignments. Both have been designated as Deputy High Commissioners until the appointment of High Commissioners, he said.

Raghavan and Bhatti were nominated by both the countries even before India last week expelled Pakistan's CDA Jalil Abbas Jilani, along with four High Commission staff in New Delhi on February 8.

In a tit-for-tat action the same day, Islamabad asked India's CDA Sudhir Vyas and four others, including first secretary Rahul Rasgotra, to leave the country.

The visas of Raghavan and Bhatti were pending with Foreign Ministries of the two countries for several months, as bilateral relations dipped after the terrorist attack on Parliament in 2001.

After a series of expulsions, India and Pakistan brought down their staff strength in their diplomatic missions in Islamabad and New Delhi from 120 to 47 members. The Indian High Commission currently has only 41 members, as the visas of the replacements of the expelled officials have not yet been cleared.

The Indian Mission in Islamabad has only three diplomats against Pakistan's five in New Delhi as Islamabad expelled more diplomats.

Meanwhile, the 'Dawn' newspaper reported that Pakistan is likely to propose new dates for holding the 12th South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) summit. Islamabad wants the summit in the last quarter of this year, it said quoting a senior official.

A summary proposal for the 12th summit was recently sent to Pakistan Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali for approval, they said adding that cleared the dates. The schedule would be communicated to the SAARC secretariat, from where the consent of the member states would be sought.

The summit was initially proposed to be held from January 11 to 13 in Islamabad, but Pakistan postponed accusing India and Bhutan of not confirming its participation in time. According to SAARC charter, a summit cannot take place if even one member state decides to abstain.

PTI