Manmohan Singh-Asif Ali Zardari meeting a mere ritual: Dawn

New Delhi, Sep 1: Prime Minister

's meeting with Pakistan President

during the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Tehran was a

, according to the Pakistani newspaper

.

"Had there been no meeting between President Asif Ali Zardari and Dr Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the NAM summit, it would have been the news of the day. Which is why there have been nearly half-a-dozen ritualistic and informal meetings between the Indian Prime Minister and Pakistan's top leaders at one or the other summit," Dawn noted in an editorial today.

"After their meeting at the 2010 SAARC summit in Thimphu, former Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and the Indian Prime Minister met three times - at Mohali last year during the cricket World Cup semifinal, at Addu, Maldives in Nov 2011 and in Seoul in Mar 2012. In addition, there was the much-hyped lunch at New Delhi for President Zardari by Dr Singh in April. The latter two met again on Thursday - again on the 'sidelines' of the NAM summit in Tehran - without conceding any ground," the daily rued.

"The only meeting the South Asian neighbours didn't owe to an international extravaganza was over lunch, but this, too, was a spin-off from President Zardari's Ajmer pilgrimage. Moral of the story: Neither side has cared to arrange a bilateral meeting for its own sake to break the ice. The Tehran meeting showed the Indian leadership is still stuck at Mumbai, with Dr Singh emphasising the need for the expeditious conclusion of the trial of the Mumbai terror suspects," Dawn said.

The newspaper credited Zardari for hitting "the nail on the head when he called upon the two parties to move beyond reiterating their known positions to try and achieve more substantive results." The editorial followed this with posers for both India and Pakistan.

"As the stronger of the two sides, will it be too much to expect New Delhi to show flexibility and desist from the temptation to apply pressure on Pakistan at a time when it finds itself in a nutcracker situation? On its part, Islamabad has to dispel the impression that the procrastination of the Mumbai suspects' trial is on purpose, and, instead, by expediting the process, show that Islamabad is as keen as New Delhi to bring the terrorists to justice," Dawn stressed.

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