Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has once again offered to hold talks with India. At the same time, the Pak PM also emphasized that Pakistan has “nothing against anyone” in mind. Not only this, Shahbaz said that he wants to promote valuable engagement with India. Explain that there is a decades-old history of tense relations between the two countries. However, in August 2019, India abrogated Article 370, scrapping the special status accorded to Jammu and Kashmir, infuriating Pakistan. Relations have deteriorated since then. Now Pakistan is once again extending its hand for talks. But India says that first stop the factory of terror running here, then talks will happen.
Addressing the inaugural session of the Pakistan Mineral Summit in Islamabad on Tuesday, Pakistani PM Shehbaz said, “We are ready to talk with everyone, even with our neighbour (India), provided the neighbouring country Gets serious about talking about serious issues. War is no longer an option.” This summit aims to increase FDI in Pakistan and move towards ‘dust to development’. During this, he talked about working with America as well. Prime Minister Sharif’s remarks on working with the US and India came after the launch of the second phase of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project. India has been openly opposing this project as it passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
It may be mentioned that Sharif had made a similar offer about six months back. He made a similar proposal during an interview with the Al Arabiya news channel. There has been no concrete dialogue between India and Pakistan since the 2008 Mumbai attacks. In the latest statement, though Sharif did not name any country, it was clear that he was referring to India. He said war was not an option for both countries and that no one would survive in the event of a “nuclear explosion”. He said, “We have nothing against anyone in our mind. We have to take care of ourselves and build our nation, even with our neighbours. We are ready to talk to them, provided the neighbour is serious enough to bring serious issues to the table as war is no longer an option.”
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that Pakistan is a nuclear power. He said that Pakistan is a nuclear power not in an aggressive way but for its defence purposes. Shahbaz also mentioned the wars with India. He said that Pakistan has fought three wars with India in the last 75 years, which has only resulted in increased poverty, unemployment and lack of resources for education, health and well-being of the people. He emphasized that this is not a way to wage war but to fight economic competition in the region. He said, “Because if there is a nuclear explosion, who will live to tell what happened? So (war) is not an option.” Emphasizing this, he said that where Pakistan understands this. Shehbaz said, “It is equally important that our neighbour has to understand that until the anomalies are removed and until our grave issues are understood and addressed through peaceful and meaningful discussions Till then we cannot be normal neighbours.”
