Following External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s visit to Pakistan, former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday said that India and Pakistan should “bury” the past and look at the future to live like good neighbours.
His remark came while he was talking to Indian journalists. The chief of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League referred to PM Modi’s visit as a “good opening” and said both sides should now engage and move forward. He further also praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s unexpected visit to Lahore in December 2015, and expressed his dissatisfaction with the prolonged stagnation in relations between the two nations, stressing the need for both sides to adopt a forward-looking and optimistic perspective.
“We can’t change our neighbours, neither can Pakistan nor can India. We should live like good neighbours,” said the three time Pakistan Prime Minister.
When asked about the need for a bridge builder between the two countries, he responded, “That’s the role I’m attempting to fulfill.”
He further said that the fight between India and Pakistan has continued for the next 70 years adding that both countries should sit down and discuss the ways to take this relationship further.
“This is how things should go ahead. We would have liked PM Modi to come but it was good that the Indian foreign minister came. I have said before that we must pick up the threads of our conversation,” Sharif said.
S Jaishankar went to Islamabad on Tuesday for a two-day visit to attend the 23rd Meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of Government. The two-day SCO Meeting was being chaired by Pakistan’s Prime Minister Sharif as the current chair of the Council.
On his Pakistan visit, he called for introspection if friendship between the two nations has fallen short or good neighbourliness is missing.
“If we fast-forward from the inception of the Charter to the situation today, these goals and these tasks are even more crucial. It is, therefore, essential that we have an honest conversation,”said Jaishankar.
“If trust is lacking or cooperation inadequate, if friendship has fallen short and good neighbourliness is missing somewhere, there are surely reasons to introspect and causes to address. Equally, it is only when we reaffirm our commitment most sincerely to the Charter that we can fully realize the benefits of cooperation and integration that it envisages,” he added.