Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said that India and Pakistan should "bury" their past and focus on building a positive future as good neighbours. His comments followed Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar's recent visit to Islamabad, which Sharif described as a “good opening.”
In discussions with Indian journalists, the three-time prime minister and president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (N) urged both nations to engage and move forward collaboratively.
"We can’t change our neighbours, neither can Pakistan nor can India. We should live like good neighbours," the 74 year-old leader said. When asked whether a bridge builder between the two countries was required, he said “that is the role I am trying to play.”
Jaishankar travelled to Islamabad recently for a nearly 24-hour trip to attend a conclave of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), becoming the first Indian foreign minister to visit Pakistan in the last nine years that came amid continuing strain in ties.
Jaishankar had “casual conversations” with both Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif and his counterpart Ishaq Dar during the visit, even though there was no formal bilateral meeting between the foreign ministers on the margins of the SCO heads of govt summit in Islamabad. The fact that the first visit by an Indian foreign minister to Pakistan in almost nine years went off without a hitch was seen as a positive development by the Indian govt.
As he departed after a 24-hour stay in Islamabad from the Nur Khan airbase in Rawalpindi, Jaishankar, who had said recently that India wasn’t passive on Pakistan and would react to positive and negative developments accordingly, thanked Sharif and Dar for the hospitality and courtesies.
While Indian govt sources described the talks as casual conversations, Pakistani officials said there was a brief pull aside, which lasted for 5 to 7 minutes, between Jaishankar and Dar on the sidelines of the dinner hosted by Sharif. Pakistan’s interior minister Mohsin Naqvi, who is also the chief of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), is learned to have joined Jaishankar and Dar.
A source said Pakistan suggested resumption of bilateral cricketing ties as a way of “breaking the ice”. Naqvi was later quoted as saying that Jaishankar’s visit was an ice-breaker even though neither side proposed a bilateral meeting. Pakistan is looking to host the Champions Trophy next year and would like India to participate.
