Islamabad, Jan. 5: Islamabad today confirmed receiving from India “some information material” on the Mumbai attacks but a senior official said it contained “nothing new” and did not amount to “proof” of a Pakistani link.

“The material has been received and is being examined by concerned authorities,” foreign ministry spokesperson Mohammad Sadiq said.

Pakistan, however, again urged a joint investigation to gather “evidence that was legally scrutable”, implying the material supplied may not be enough for Islamabad to take legal action against anyone.

Pakistan has refused to hand over any terror suspect but media reports have quoted anonymous officials as saying Indian investigators may be given access to the suspects if they can prove their involvement.

“The Indian government has finally handed over the much-awaited dossier to us. The dossier is mainly based on the confessions of Ajmal Kasab (the lone arrested gunman),” a senior Pakistani official told The Telegraph

“Whatever has been mentioned in the dossier is based on what people actually got to know through the media. It contains nothing new.”

The official added: “We do not call it proof as it merely tries to establish Kasab’s links with Pakistan while the fact remains that this country has nothing to do with the Mumbai attacks.

“Kasab’s confession in the dossier only speaks of how he met the other attackers, the intercepts about his and other attackers’ communication with Zarar Shah, GPS data and how he reached Mumbai.”

How can Kasab’s conversation with any “x, y or z” establish his identity as a Pakistani, he asked. However, Shah is certainly a Pakistani and evidence of his conversations with the Mumbai terrorists — reportedly furnished independently by America’s FBI — would point to a Pakistani link.

A Pakistani newspaper today said Islamabad was not taking seriously Kasab’s alleged confessional statement that India handed it on December 23, along with a letter in which the gunman, calling himself a Pakistani, seeks legal aid.

“Such material cannot be treated as ample proof,” a foreign office source was quoted as saying by The News. Kasab’s statement is not admissible proof under “any penal code anywhere in the world, including India or Pakistan”, the official said.

Officials, however, told The Telegraph that no hasty decision would be taken on Kasab, and if he was proved to be a Pakistani he could be provided legal help.

A Pakistan foreign ministry statement said Indian foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon had handed the dossier over to Pakistan high commissioner Shahid Malik in New Delhi this morning. Indian high commissioner Satyabrata Pal, too, had passed on “the same information dossier” to Pakistan foreign secretary Salman Bashir.

The move coincided with the arrival of US assistant secretary of state Richard Boucher, who met President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi. A PTI report said the Pakistan government told Boucher it would soon give India a formal response.