ISLAMABAD: With Islamabad’s desire for revival of Composite Dialogue trumped by the Indian offer last week of foreign secretary-level talks, Foreign Office mandarins are advocating a cautious response to New Delhi’s invitation.

The Foreign Office on Monday held ‘in-house deliberations’ on the invitation extended to Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir by his Indian counterpart, Nirupama Rao.

Rao had offered to discuss all outstanding issues with a focus on counter-terrorism, but made clear that India was not interested in resumption of Composite Dialogue suspended after the Mumbai attacks.

India has offered Feb 18 and 25 as possible dates for foreign secretaries’ meeting.

Although the Foreign Office has not taken a final decision, there was strong resistance at the meeting to accepting parleys that do not lead to the restoration of Composite Dialogue or having a confab under a new framework.

“It was felt that we ought to be very careful because engagement with India without any prior agreement on resumption of Composite Dialogue would not be to our advantage,” a senior official told Dawn after lengthy discussions on the issue.

Pakistan has steadfastly held to its position that the Composite Dialogue process offered hopes for a meaningful engagement to address all outstanding issues and was the only way forward for normalising the bilateral ties.

The Indian invitation for talks has nevertheless put Pakistan into a diplomatic dilemma. Accepting the offer compromises its stance on Composite Dialogue, while rejecting it may invite international pressure with world capitals perceiving Islamabad as ‘a blocker’.

Describing the talks offer as a ‘bait’, an official candidly accepted that ‘it had put the Foreign Ministry in a fix’.

Officials, however, insisted that the mood at in-house consultations should not be used for prejudging Pakistan’s response.

“At the end of the day it is going to be the political leadership’s decision on whether or not to accept the invitation,” a diplomat said, adding it (political leadership) might come up with some ‘out of box thinking’.

The Foreign Office will now hold an inter-agency consultative session on Wednesday involving other stakeholders, notably the defence ministry, for firming up a strategy on the talks offer.