Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday extended an offer of talks to India, saying Pakistan is ready to engage “for peace”. Shehbaz made the comments during a visit to the Kamra air base in the country’s Punjab province where he interacted with officers and soldiers involved in the recent military confrontation with India, reports Press Trust of India from ISLAMABAD.
“We are ready to talk with it (India) for peace,” he said.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday invited India to a comprehensive dialogue to address all contentious issues, including the Kashmir dispute and the water distribution, between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, reports Dawn and regional agencies.
PM Shehbaz again asked PM Modi to shun differences and sit for a dialogue. “Let us extinguish this fire. Let us sit together to talk on Kashmir and water,” he added. After the Pahalgam attack, India put the water treaty with Pakistan in abeyance, prompting a strong response from Pakistan. In an interview with an Indian media outlet last week, World Bank President Ajay Banga said there was no suspension clause in the Indus Waters Treaty.
“There is no provision in the treaty to allow for suspension the way it was drawn up. It either needs to be gone, or replaced by another one, and that requires the two countries to want to agree,” he said. He also said that the bank played no decision-making role and acted solely as a facilitator.
In a telephone call with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, the Pakistani premier expressed his deep appreciation for the UN secretary general’s leadership and diplomatic efforts to defuse the situation in South Asia. He stated that the UN chief’s continued engagement and preventive diplomacy demonstrated his enduring commitment to the protection of the UN Charter’s principles and purposes, as well as to fostering peace in South Asia.
This was the third phone call between the two leaders in the last two weeks.
The UN secretary general welcomed the ceasefire, while expressing condolences over the loss of civilian lives. He expressed his commitment to continued engagement with both sides to advance regional peace and stability.
Indian guard repatriated
Pakistan returned a captured border guard to India on Wednesday, reported AFP. The guard was captured a day after the April 22 Pahalgam attack, which killed 26 people and sparked tit-for-tat missile, drone and fighter jet attacks. No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but India blamed Pakistan. Islamabad rejects the accusations and has called for an independent probe.
“Purnam Kumar Shaw, who had been in the custody of Pakistan Rangers since April 23, was handed over to India,” India’s Border Security Force (BSF) said in a statement.