ISLAMABAD, April 4: Foreign ministry officials have rejected a reported claim by Indian prime minister's top aide Brajesh Mishra that Pakistan has been dragging its feet on some vital confidence building measures, including the Khokhrapar-Monabao bus service and the re-opening of the Indian consulate in Karachi.

"As far as the Khokhrapar-Monabao bus service is concerned it was not possible for us to give a date at the moment. Right now we can only start a camel service as there is only desert there," said a senior foreign ministry official when Dawn invited his attention to the Indian reservations.

The official pointed out that while India had to build only one-and-a-half kilometres of road on its side, Pakistan had to construct a 37km road. He also referred to the positive tone and tenor of the joint statement issued after the Khokhrapar-Monabao bus service talks between the two sides last month.

According to the National Highway Authority estimate, even at a high speed the road project will take 18 months to complete. On the question of the Indian consulate in Karachi, the official said Pakistan had no problems in re-opening it provided it was done on a reciprocal basis and Pakistan was also allowed to re-open its consulate in Mumbai at the Jinnah House.

"If the Indian government gives us the Jinnah House in Mumbai to set up the Pakistani consulate and the guarantee that our consulate will be allowed to function smoothly we will give the green light for re-opening of the Indian consulate at Karachi," said another official.

The various commitments made by India at the highest political level to gift the Jinnah House, the one time residence of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, to the Pakistan government have yet to be honoured. When Pakistan's consulate re-opened in 1992 the ruling party in Mumbai, Shiv Sena, did not allow its smooth functioning.

Due to fear of Shiv Sena no landlords were willing to rent their premises to house Pakistani diplomats and the consulate. A Pakistan National Day function in Mumbai had to be cancelled because of threats from Shiv Sena. The hotel where the function was to be held cancelled it at the last minute, citing security reasons.

It was Shiv Sena, a Hindu Nationalist party founded in 1966 by Bal Thackeray, that also damaged a cricket pitch in India ahead of a match between Pakistani and Indian teams.

Officials expressed surprise at the claim that Pakistan was also dragging its feet on the Muzaffarabad-Srinagar bus service when even the first round of talks had not begun. "How can anyone prejudge the outcome of talks that have yet to start?" asked one official.

Responding to another assertion by Mr Mishra that while the Jihadi camps in Kashmir had been shifted, they were not dismantled, the official said: "This is absolutely propagandist and has no basis". Pakistan has been advocating a neutral mechanism to verify all such charges that could be otherwise politically motivated, the official concluded.