Nawaz Sharif: Jaishankar visit a good opening, India and Pakistan need to move forward

Sharif met the journalists at the office of the Chief Minister of Pakistan Punjab where Maryam Nawaz Sharif, his daughter and CM, was present.

Stating that they “should pick up the threads where we left” — he was referring to his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi who made a sudden visit to Pakistan in December 2015 — Sharif said, “We have lost 75 years, now (we) should think of the next 75 years.”

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar being received by Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif at the venue of the SCO meeting in Islamabad on Wednesday. (ANI photo)

“I tried to mend the relationship, but they were disrupted again and again,” he said – the disruptions were a reference to the Kargil war and the attacks in India by Pakistan-based terrorists following his meetings with Prime Ministers Atal Behari Vajpayee and Narendra Modi.

“We are neighbours, we can’t change our neighbours. Neither can Pakistan nor can India. We should live like good neighbours. We should not go into the past, and should look to the future,” he said.

“Dono taraf ke gile shikwe hain (both sides have their grievances), we should bury the past, we should think about the future… I believe India, Pakistan and the neighbourhood should deal as India’s own states do with each other,” he said, listing “trade, investments, industry, tourism, electricity” as possible areas of bilateral cooperation.

“We should look to the future and see the potential of our two nations which have considerable populations,” he said. “We should sit together and discuss everything seriously,” he said. Asked about Article 370 and Kashmir, he declined to comment saying this was not the occasion to discuss these issues.

“Vajpayee’s Lahore visit is still remembered very fondly,” he recalled. “His speech was very good. I sometimes watch YouTube videos of the visit and the speech to revive good old memories.”

On Modi’s sudden visit to Lahore in 2015, he said, “Modi’s visit was a pleasant surprise. He called from Kabul and wanted to wish me. He came to my home, met my mother, wife who have since passed on. It was not a small gesture, they mean something to us, especially in our countries. We should not overlook them.”

He said former Pakistan PM “Imran Khan used words that destroyed the relationship. As leaders of two countries and neighbours, we should not even think let alone utter such words.” He was referring to a post by Khan in September 2018, supposedly targeting Modi.

Asked if bus and train services should be restored between the two countries, he said, “Why not?” India and Pakistan, he said, were “one country” and “my father’s passport had Amritsar, India, written as his birthplace”.

Mentioning shared “customs and rituals, traditions, cuisine, language”, he said, “What’s the difference? I am not happy about the long pause in the relationship, the people-to-people relationship is very good… at the political level, the mindset has to change.”

From Vajpayee to Modi, he said, “We have very good prospects of ties. I think very positively about the relationship with India.” Asked whether a bridge builder was required, he said, “That is the role I am trying to play.”

On whether the Prime Ministers should meet next month at the COP meeting in Azerbaijan, he said, “The PMs should meet at the COP meeting next month. We have lost a lot of time in the last 75 years, we have not gained anything.”

He also pitched for restoration of cricket ties. “Why should cricket teams not visit each other’s country and play?” he said. “I am willing to travel to India. If the two teams play the finals, I can go and watch it,” he said. Asked if India should send a team for the Champions Trophy, he said, “You have spoken what’s in my heart.”

He said Modi should also travel to Pakistan, and would like him to visit again formally.

Maryam Nawaz Sharif, who sat next to her father, also expressed her desire to travel to India. “I received so much love and affection from Indian pilgrims during my visit to Kartarpur. I would love to visit India, particularly Punjab,” she said. Sharif said, “Why just Punjab? Also go to Himachal, Haryana and other states.”