General Sharif wants a proper talks roadmap, not
‘cosmetic handshake’
Pakistan continued to keep India guessing on the
proposed visit of its prime minister, Nawaz Sharif,
with reports suggesting a rift between him and the
army chief, General Raheel Sharif, over the
invitation to attend Narendra Modi’s swearing-in
ceremony.
Sharif is keen on making a new beginning with the
next government in Delhi. But sources said Friday
that though the foreign office has urged him not to
miss this opportunity of taking the relationship
forward, the allpowerful army has still not given the
go-ahead. “The army wants a clear roadmap for
talks and not a cosmetic handshake meeting with
Modi,” said a source requesting anonymity.
Sharif is still trying to find a way to make it to Delhi
for Monday’s ceremony but his job has been made
all the more difficult by statements from Lashkar-
e-Taiba founder and 26/11 mastermind Hafiz
Saeed. Video footage aired by local media shows
him saying, “If you (Sharif) visit India to attend
Modi’s swearing-in, what will you tell the
Kashmiris?”
Saeed, who has often warned against friendship
with India unless the Kashmir issue is resolved, is
widely believed to be speaking at the behest of the
army. After the BJP’s victory in the general
elections, he had remarked, “Modi has come. Now,
god willing, the illusion of friendship will be
shattered.”
Sharif is also facing pressure from another corner
— his cabinet colleagues. There is a division within
the Pakistan cabinet on whether he should accept
Modi’s invitation. While his adviser on foreign
affairs Sartaj Aziz has told him to go for it, others
like interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan have
advised caution.
Chaudhry Nisar is believed to have told Sharif that
with the tussle between the military high command
and the Jang media group at a critical juncture,
visiting India “would give all the wrong signals”.
Critics of the Jang group — which owns the banned
Geo TV, whose anchor Hamid Mir has openly
blamed the ISI for an attack on his life — accuse the
media house as well as the Sharif government of
being pro-India.
In Delhi, officials in the ministry of external affairs
said they were still waiting for a confirmation from
Pakistan, though some conceded the 48-hour delay
indicated all was not well.
“This is an opportunity for the Pakistan PM to tilt
the scales in his favour and tell the ar my who the
boss is,” said one official.
Ousted in a bloodless coup by Pervez Musharraf in
1999, Sharif is treading cautiously. His final decision
will, to a large extent, deter mine the immediate
future o f the India-Pakistan relationship.