India and Pakistan are to meet for the first time in a structured format in Islamabad to "identify and implement counter-terrorism initiatives and investigations" as part of the anti-terror mechanism created last September. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf had met on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Meeting (NAM) in Havana last September and agreed to create such an institutionalized cooperation effort.
Subsequently, the formal constitution of the panel was announced in November and that "is the quick informal method for sharing of information or seeking each others' cooperation" in addition to the formal methodology followed in the composite dialogue process.
