Islamabad: In a mark of a growing thaw between the two nations, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday broke the protocol to meet visiting Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar when foreign secretary talks resumed on Tuesday after a hiatus of seven months, albeit under the fig-leaf of a SAARC meeting.
The Pakistani premier, who received a personal letter from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said that he hoped secretary level talks between Pakistan and India would grow into the highest-level dialogue and keep the regional peace.
Speaking to Mr. Jaishankar who called on him, Prime Minister Sharif said dialogue is the only way to solve bilateral irritants.
While both sides raised issues of concern, sources close to the developments said that the letter from PM Modi indicated that the top leadership was already, and indirectly engaged in dialogue.
“The letter sent by Prime Minister Modi speaks volumes. It looks like the two PMs are in contact and this is good for both countries,” an analyst said.
Jaishankar met his Pakistani counterpart Aizaz Chaudhary in Islamabad, and renewed a long overdue interaction.
Former Pakistan foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar said relations between India and Pakistan are at their lowest, while dismissing the Indian foreign secretary’s visit as “talks about talks”.
“The foreign-secretary level talks are just talks about talks. How do they get to talk, who gets what pretext”, Ms Khar said in an interview with a Pakistani television channel. “The current talks are held under the shroud of the ‘Saarc Yatra’”, Ms Khar said, which she believed was largely unhelpful to the dialogue process.
“Look at the irony, in 67 years, we cannot even agree on what kind of dialogue to hold”, the former foreign minister said. “Pakistan-India relations are at their lowest”, she said when asked if relations have improved since she held office as foreign minister.
The former foreign minister hoped that Line of Control tensions and the 2003 ceasefire would be on the agenda but had little hope of progress from the Indian side. Sporadic outbreak of hostilities have bedevilled relations between the two countries in recent months.
“Narendra Modi’s government has been overly cautious about India-Pakistan relations. To the extent of being scared”, Ms Khar said, adding, “In the past one year, Modi’s government has only given in to the constituency of hate mongers and they have encouraged an environment of hostility”.
She said if Mr Modi wants to be statesman he envisions to be then he needs to take up issues as they are. “A government which is too scared to engage bilaterally does not realistically leave a lot of hope for relations to improve”, Ms Khar said.
