18 october 2024 : Former prime minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif said on Thursday that external affairs minister S Jaishankar’s visit to Islamabad was a “good opening” to break the ice between the neighbouring countries, reported news agency PTI.
S Jaishankar travelled to Islamabad on Tuesday 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.
In an interaction with a group of Indian journalists, Nawaz Sharif, a three-time prime minister and president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (N), said both sides should now engage and move forward.
Hailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surprise trip to Lahore in December 2015, Nawaz Sharif said he was not happy with the “long-pause” in the ties between the two countries and hoped that both sides should look ahead with a positive approach.
“We can’t change our neighbours, neither can Pakistan nor can India. We should live like good neighbours,” the 74 year-old leader said.
“We have spent 70 years in this way (fighting) and we should not let this go on for the next 70 years… Both sides should sit down and discuss how to go forward,” Nawaz Sharif told reporters after S Jaishankar’s visit.
Nawaz Sharif also blamed the current breakdown of communication between the two countries on former prime minister Imran Khan, especially comments made by the latter against prime minister Modi.
“Imran Khan used words that destroyed the relationship – as leaders of the two countries and neighbours, we should not even think, let alone utter such words,” Nawaz Shari said, referring to a post by Imran Khan in September 2018, supposedly targeting Modi.
Sharif has also stated that he would like to be involved in building bridges between the two countries and highlighted the importance of resuming trade and cricket between the two countries as a means to thaw the icy relationship.
Trade between the two countries has been suspended since 2019 due to heavy duties being imposed by the Indian government on imports from Pakistan after the 2019 Pulwama attack.
