Summary Sartaj Aziz and Sushma Swaraj met on the sidelines of 37th SAARC Council of Ministers Meeting
Dunya News Report (Madiha Fareed)
Prime Minister’s Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz and India’s Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj met on the sidelines of 37th SAARC Council of Ministers meeting held in the Nepalese city Pokhara.
During the meeting Sartaj Aziz formally invited Indian Premier Narendra Modi to attend the 19th SAARC summit later this year in November which Pakistan will host. Sartaj Aziz also handed the invitation letters to the other fellow ministers of SAARC nations.
Both leaders reportedly discussed the progress on Pathankot investigations and the resumption of bilateral dialogue between the two countries.
This is the first official meeting between two high officials of both countries since the bilateral talks got cancelled. Both Pakistan and India agreed to restore the bilateral dialogue during Indian minister for external affairs visit to Pakistan for heart of Asia Conference. The Foreign Secretary level talks which were scheduled for mid-January got cancelled due to the attack on Indian Air force Base in Pathankot, which Indian authorities claimed originated from Pakistan.
On January 2nd, 2016, four gunmen broke into Indian Air Force Base in Pathankot, in India’s Punjab Province and engaged Indian forces in a heavy gunfire battle; the operation lasted four days killing all four attackers and seven Indian military personnel.
The incident came roughly a week after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surprise visit to Pakistan on Dec 25th, 2015, and jeopardized the hardly restored dialogue process between two nuclear armed nations.
Pakistan responded with all seriousness and agreed to cooperate in investigation to bring to justice all the culprits behind the attacks. Pakistan even file an FIR on the basis of intelligence provided by India, and constituted a Special Investigative Team (SIT) to investigate the issue. A First Information Report (FIR) was also filed in Pakistan against the alleged attackers.
Indian Media and government claimed that the banned Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) was behind the attacks. However no individuals or organizations were named in the FIR filed in Pakistan which infuriated the Indian authorities. India have long been adamant that JeM is behind insurgency in Indian –administered part of Kashmir and other parts of India. In the recent wake of events, Pakisatn had put Maulana Masood Azhar, the chief of JeM, under “protective custody” but maintained that he’ll only be prosecuted if found to be guilty beyond doubt.
Recently Pakistan Cricket Team’s visit to India to participate in WT20 tournament got almost cancelled as the Hindu extremists groups threatened to “thwart the pitch” if Pakistan was allowed to participate in the tournament. However the things cooled down after the Indian Authorities assured Pakistani government to provide full security to Pakistan team and changed the venue for the anticipated match between India and Pakistan was changed to Kolkata in place of Dharmasala, Himachal Pradesh.
It is also pertinent to note that Nawaz Sharif and Narendra Modi are expected to meet next month in Washington on the sidelines of nuclear security summit scheduled for March 31-April1, as they have both accepted Barack Obama’s invitation to attend the summit.
