NEW DELHI: India issued yet another note verbale to Pakistan earlier this month protesting 5 cases of harassment of Indian diplomats in Islamabad, TOI has learnt.

While these were mostly cases of tailing, the government thought it proper to register a protest because of the frequency of such incidents.

Significantly, as official sources confirmed, India this month also approved the appointment of Pakistan's new high commissioner Moin-ul-Haque. Pakistan media had earlier reported that India had reservations about Pakistan's choice of Haque as the new high commissioner.

Haque, who is expected to arrive in Delhi in the third week of August, was Pakistan's ambassador to France when Islamabad decided in May this year to send him to India. He's taking the place of Sohail Mahmood, now Pakistan's foreign secretary, who in the absence of any formal engagement with India worked with former foreign minister Sushma Swaraj to address issues related to prisoners and religious tourism. India will hope that Haque will play a positive role in the implementation of the understanding the 2 countries have arrived at to make operational the Kartarpur Corridor .

The 2 countries have in the past few months used the 1992 Code of Conduct for treatment of diplomatic/consular personnel in India and Pakistan to bring down the number of incidents related to harassment in both capitals. On several occasions though, things have threatened to fall apart like before Eid this year when both Pakistan and India accused each other of disrupting their respective iftar gatherings. In July, however, no incident of harassment of any Pakistani diplomats has been reported from here.

The 2 countries are currently also in the middle of negotiations for providing Indian consular officials access to Kulbhushan Jadhav, as ordered by the ICJ this month. The government wants Pakistan to allow Indian officials to talk to him in private. Islamabad has said it will provide consular access "according to Pakistani laws".

The government is also hoping the euphoria in Pakistan over Islamabad's, as a source put it, successful gaming of US President Donald Trump 's Afghanistan strategy will not embolden it to become more unreasonable in talks with India on issues like Jadhav and Kartarpur Corridor. Describing Trump's offer of mediation on the Kashmir issue as more than Pakistan's expectations, Pakistan's foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said Sunday that India's "adamant attitude on Kashmir issue can cost it heavy".

As the government reiterated in Parliament last week, Pakistan is yet to take credible and irreversible steps to end cross-border terrorism and dismantle terrorist infrastructure in territory under its control. However, while India is satisfied with State Department's clarification that there was no change in the US position that Kashmir was a bilateral issue, the US decision to resume military aid to Pakistan in the form of $ 125 million worth of technical and logistics support for Pakistani F-16 fighter jets has led to the perception that Trump's remarks were not merely a fleeting mental aberration.

As strategic affairs expert Brahma Chellaney tweeted, Pakistan used F-16s against India (after Balakot) and yet US approved $125 million in technical and logistics support services for Pakistan's F-16 fleet, saying it will not affect the "regional balance." "Those who claim Trump's July 22 comments mean nothing are missing the new courtship," he said.

