Shehbaz Sharif says Pakistan wants a “better relationship with India”. (File)
New Delhi:
Pakistan’s new premier Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday returned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s greetings on his selection as the country’s leader, affixing its “sacrifices” in fighting terrorism and the dispute over Jammu and Kashmir.
PM Modi had congratulated Mr Sharif on Twitter after the latter’s win and reiterated his desire for “peace and stability” in the region.
Congratulations to H. E. Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on his election as the Prime Minister of Pakistan. India desires peace and stability in a region free of terror, so that we can focus on our development challenges and ensure the well-being and prosperity of our people.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 11, 2022
A day later, Mr Sharif responded:
Thank you Premier Narendra Modi for felicitations. Pakistan desires peaceful & cooperative ties with India. Peaceful settlement of outstanding disputes including Jammu & Kashmir is indispensable. Pakistan’s sacrifices in fighting terrorism are well-known. Let’s secure peace and.. https://t.co/0M1wxhhvjV
— Shehbaz Sharif (@CMShehbaz) April 12, 2022
Mr Sharif’s appointment as the Prime Minister of Pakistan ended the weeks-long political uncertainty that had gripped the country since a no-confidence motion was introduced against his predecessor Imran Khan on March 8.
Mr Sharif was elected unopposed as PM by Pakistan’s parliament, as he was the only candidate left in the race after former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi announced that his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party will boycott the voting and staged a walkout.
Soon after he was elected as Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Mr Sharif in his inaugural speech raised the issue of abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir and alleged that the people in the Valley were bleeding and Pakistan will provide them with “diplomatic and moral support” besides raising the matter at every international forum.
The 70-year-old leader, who replaced Imran Khan after a high voltage political tussle, said he wanted good relations with India, but it cannot be achieved without the resolution of the Kashmir issue.
Seen as pragmatic and business-friendly by many, Shehbaz Sharif faces daunting challenges as a leader — among them relations with a neighbour his country has fought three wars against in the past 75 years.
But he hails from an elite political family seen in India as conciliatory towards New Delhi and willing to settle disputes with dialogue instead of denunciation — unlike his immediate predecessor.
Unusually for a senior Pakistani politician, Mr Sharif has visited India, in 2013 as Chief Minister of Punjab — a state that was split between them in the bloody 1947 partition of the subcontinent.
Mr Sharif visited his family’s ancestral village on the Indian side of the frontier and met with then-prime minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi, along with other officials.
And for his part, PM Modi has attended a Sharif family wedding on a surprise trip to Pakistan in 2015, a year after taking office, when he was hosted by his elder brother Nawaz, himself Prime Minister at the time.
PM Modi’s trip was followed by several rounds of trust-building talks aimed at repairing relations that had sunk to a low ebb after the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, which India accused Pakistan of sponsoring.
But that came to an abrupt halt the following year with renewed Pakistan-backed terrorist strikes in Jammu and Kashmir.
A series of tit-for-tat air raids were then staged over the region’s frontier in 2019, with brinkmanship and radio silence between the two governments heightening fears of another all-out war.
During Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government, diplomatic relations were downgraded, and direct trade was suspended.
Mr Khan was also critical of PM Modi and called for international action on Jammu and Kashmir.