Ahead of PM's Pak statement, Menon briefs MPs

Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon on Wednesday briefed Congress Members of Parliament about various aspects of the Indo-Pak joint statement issued at Sharm-el Sheikh, hours ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's intervention on the issue in Parliament.

Menon briefed a group of party MPs from both the Houses on the technical details of the statement so that they were aware of all the details of the communique before the discussion on the issue, sources said.

The Indo-Pak joint statement, issued after the meeting between Dr Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani, came under attack from all sides for delinking of terror from the composite dialogue process and the reference to Balochistan.

Dr Singh's intervention has assumed significance in view of the fact that the Congress has so far failed to openly come out in support of him on the issue.