Islamabad: Pakistan’s Prime Minister-in-waiting Imran Khan is not going to be soft towards India, close aides said on Thursday even as the 65-year-old cricketer-turned-politician described Kashmir as the “biggest problem” and advocated talks between the two neighbours to resolve it. “If they take one step towards us, we will take two, but at least need a start,” he said.
“We want to improve our relations with India, if their leadership also wants it. This blame game that whatever goes wrong in Pakistan’s Balochistan is because of India and vice versa brings us back to square one,” he said.
In a recent interview, the PTI leader said he had grown up “hating India” due to the bloodshed and violence associated with partition. “I grew up hating India because I grew up in Lahore and there were massacres of 1947, so much bloodshed and anger. But as I started touring India, I got such love and friendship there that all this disappeared,” Mr Khan said.
Weeks before the elections, he had expressed dim hopes for breaking of ice between Pakistan and India, blaming Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the deadlock in relations between the South Asian neighbours.
Mr Khan lamented that the Indian Prime Minister’s “mindset” did not allow for negotiations between the two countries. “Modi’s mindset does not allow for [the negotiations]. I had told Modi [once], no matter what happens the door for negotiations between India and Pakistan must never close,” he said.
PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry said his party will not compromise on the Kashmir issue with India. “We want peace but will not bow before Modi,” he maintained.
