Pakistan is ready to talk to any government elected by Indian voters, including one headed by Narendra Modi, Pakistani Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif’s Advisor on Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz told Indian media on Saturday.
“We are ready to do business with any leader, including Modi,’’ Aziz told Hindustan Times in an interview.
Aziz’s comments have come a day after Pakistan Army Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif’s remarks citing Kashmir as Pakistan’s “jugular vein”.
The general’s comments were viewed by Indian strategic experts as a signal by the army to the civilian leadership on the Kashmir issue, but Aziz denied the claim.
“That is our standing position. Kashmir is an issue that both India and Pakistan need to negotiate and remains on the dialogue table but if statements are made during the course of Indian elections about Kashmir being an integral part of India, there will be reactions and responses,” Aziz said.
Sartaj emphasised that previously any real progress between the two neighbours was under a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government with Vajpayee as PM.
In 1999, Vajpaye had undertaken a bus journey across the Wagah border to Lahore when Nawaz Sharif was the PM of Pakistan.
The two had signed the Lahore Declaration in which both countries committed themselves to ‘intensify their efforts to resolve all issues, including the issue of Jammu and Kashmir’. In the declaration, both also agreed to enhance confidence-building measures in the nuclear and conventional military fields.
Reiterating his government’s desire to normalise ties with India, Aziz said that peace with India was Nawaz’s poll plank and he launched his peace mission immediately after becoming PM.
“We had a good start with Manmohan Singh and now look forward to restarting the dialogue once a new government assumes power in New Delhi,” he said.
