Case against Saeed half-baked, says Pakistan

Facing flak for inaction against Mumbai attack perpetrators, including Hafiz Mohd Saeed, Pakistan today said it does not want to take to court a "half-baked" case against the JuD chief in the absence of "legally tenable" evidence and asked India not to hold back the ties on a single issue.

"The question is how do we move beyond this point. The relationship cannot be held or brought to a standstill because of a trial or one investigation," Pakistan Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir told PTI after his talks with his Indian counterpart Nirupama Rao. Pakistan, he said, has nothing to hide.

"In fact, we have been very forthcoming on the quality of the work that has been done by our experts in terms of investigations and the arrests etc, and all that has been shared with India," he said.

His remarks came as External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi are set to meet later tonight for crucial talks.

Hours ahead of his talks with Krishna on the margins of the UN General Assembly session, Qureshi said Pakistan did not want to take to court a "half-baked" case against Saeed.

"We will certainly not hesitate for taking action (against Saeed), but we got to have a case which is legally tenable because if we take a case into court which is a half-baked case and if the court sets him free, you'll say 'collusion', 'drama'. No we are not in a mood to collude with terrorists," he told NDTV.