NEW DELHI. Nov 10 : The former External Affairs Minister, I K Oujral, Saturday criticised the government for not doing enough to salvage the postponed Colombo SAARC summit and said the lost summit has distanced neighbours, reports PTI.

In a statement here, Oujral

urged the Prime Minister, P V Narasimha Rao, to join other SAARC member-states In retrieving the organisation form the stranglehold of a charter provision that gave a veto to an absentee leader of a member country.

He said the government appeared to have from the beginning adopted a rather lukewarm attitude towards the Colombo summit-the Foreign Secretary was represented by an additional secretary and the external affairs minister by the minister of state.

Emphasising that there were legitimate reasons for India's dissatisfaction with the manner In which the Srl Lankan President, R Prema-

dasa, had handled relations with India, he said this, however, was a bilateral issue and should not come as a shadow on the SAARC summit.

AFP report from Colombo said : India has protested to Colombo over Pakistani Prime

Minister Nawaz Sharifs remarks on Kashmir during his visit here, officials said todays

The Indian High Commission here protested to the Srl Lankan Foreign Ministry that Sharif had used his visit to bring up the dispute between India and Pakistan on Kashmir, officials said.

At-a banquet hosted by Srl Lankan President Premadasa on Thursday, the Pakistani leader reiterated his country's support for self-determination in Kashmir.

Sharif also said Pakistan was committed to bilateral discus slons with India to resolving the Kashmiri dispute, over which the two neighbouring states twice went to war. Sharif concluded his visit to Sri Lanka on Saturday.

The Sunday Times newspaper quoted Indian high commission here Nagendra Nath Jha as saying that the Pakistani premier had brought up Indo-Pakistan issues at an inappropriate forum.