Summary Nawaz Sharif said that the misunderstanding between the two countries would be cleared soon.
Dunya News Report (Saleem Khilji)
ISLAMABAD: Without showing any hint on the resumption of talks process between Pakistan and India, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said that the misunderstanding arose between the two countries after the Charsadda and Pathankot incidents is going to be cleared up. “Things are now moving in the right direction,” he told media in Lahore on January 30.
The prime minister’s hopes for the normalizations of relations with India were so obvious in his tone and the use of words. The recent visit of Adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz to India is reflective of Mr Sharif’s inclination to resolve the issues as early as possible.
However Mr Aziz, in his encounter with media in New Delhi, threw the ball in the court of India, saying that Pakistan is still waiting for India’s response to start the foreign secretary-level talks.
After the Pathankot airbase attack on January 2, a select Indian leadership and media got infuriated accusing Pakistan of supporting the masterminds of the attack, however Pakistan not only condemned the attack but also offered its all-out support in the investigation to reach out to the terrorists.
Similarly, some of the media activists and politicians tried to shift the blame of Charsadda University attack on India but they have to silence their guns after the intelligence agencies held out the facilitators of the attack and succeeded to investigate destination of terrorists. Soon after the incident, India Prime Minister Narendra Modi also condemned the attack.
The fate of Pakistan-India secretary-levels talks which were earlier scheduled for January 15 hanged in balance after the two sides seemingly contradicted each other about the schedule of talks after Pathankot airbase attack.
The situation somehow exacerbated when in response to Mr Aziz’s remarks about the holding of talks as scheduled, Indian national security advisor Ajit Doval categorically denied holding of any talks, saying that India would await Pakistan’s action on Pathankot incident and then proceed further. Mr Aziz on January 8 had told the National Assembly as well as media that the secretary-level talks will be held as scheduled.
Confusion however, prevailed over the date of the talks. During an interview with dainikbhaskar.com, an Indian Hindi news website, Mr Doval denied having fixing any dates to hold secretary-level talks. “We have asked Pakistan to show progress in Pathankot incident probe and forward progress will depend on the action taken by Pakistan,” he said.
A news story regarding the cancellation of talks appeared in The Times of India with a clear-cut message from Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval that the foreign secretary-level talks between India and Pakistan won t happen if Pakistan does not act against the Pathankot attack masterminds.
The newspaper quoted an interview of Mr Doval (in his voice over) conducted by dainikbhaskar.com and re-quoted by NDTV in the words: "India will talk only if Pakistan takes action."
However, Mr Doval had denied any such statement given to media about the cancellation of talks, saying that he has given a lot of interviews to media and does not recall something like that. In the mist of such a weak denial, Mr Doval didn’t say anything as if the talks would be held as scheduled.
The question as to who finalized the dates for the talks is yet to be answered from Pakistani side. Only Foreign Office spokesman Qazi Khalilullah on December 31, 2015 had said that the dates for a meeting between Pakistan and Indian foreign secretary-level talks in January were being finalized and would be announced close to the talks. Two days later on January 2, 2016, the Pathankot incident transpired and till date, any update about the fixing of a date for talks at official level is missing from both the sides.
Right after the attack Prime Minister Modi spoke to Prime Minister Sharif on telephone and called for a strong and immediate action against the organizations and individuals linked to the Pathankot terrorist attack. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi and assured him of Pakistan’s all-out support in investigating the terrorist attack on Pathankot airbase.
As regards, Indian National Security Advisor also contacted his Pakistani counterpart Gen. (Retd) Nasir Janjua and welcomed Pakistan’s statement in which it had condemned attack on the airbase.
