Certain aspects relate to methods and apparatus for reducing interference in a heterogeneous network. Certain aspects relate to methods and apparatus for delinking downlink and uplink resource partitioning in a heterogeneous network. In aspects, the delinking is accomplished by reliably delivering uplink grant to a UE, e.g., pico UE in a pico CRE region, without using downlink Almost Blank Subframe (ABS) resources in which an interfering cell limits transmission to reduce interference to other victim cells. In techniques, instead of using the regular PDCCH sent in downlink ABS resources for uplink grant transmission, the uplink grant is sent on another more reliable downlink control channel using resources configured to avoid interference with transmissions from an interfering base station. In techniques, the DL grant is sent on PDCCH in non-downlink ABS resources, but the UE employs enhanced UE capabilities (e.g., interference cancellation) to process the received control information.