Indian leader’s Pakistan visit raises hope for relations

Senior People’s Democratic Party ( PDP) politician and Government spokesperson Naeem Akhtar on Friday said that “unscheduled” meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif is a “huge out of the box gift” to the people of Jammu and Kashmir. The visit coincides with Sharif’s birthday and the wedding of his granddaughter.

Mistrust between India and Pakistan runs deep. “Nobody wants to oppose peace between India and Pakistan…We welcome the gesture, but assert that such goodwill gestures would only remain cosmetic as long as the people of Jammu and Kashmir divided between India and Pakistan continue to stew in their own soup”, Malik said.

Prime Minister Modi had earlier today extended his wishes to the Pakistani counterpart on his 65th birthday.

“This is how this visit was suddenly planned, ” he said.

“So, you have finally come”, Sharif told Modi, according to a Pakistani foreign ministry official who was at the meeting.

Modi’s stunning decision to drop in for talks with Pakistan’s leader – something ex-premier Manmohan Singh failed to achieve in ten years of power – was roundly welcomed in India where it was seen as a highly calculated personal gamble.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surprise stopover in Pakistan on his return home from Russian Federation has evoked hope and expectations among separatist and mainstream political parties in Jammu and Kashmir.

After Prime Minister Modi tweet announcing that he was looking forward to meeting Nawaz Sharif on Thursday afternoon, users from both sides of the border took to Twitter to express their reactions.

Television polls suggested the majority of India’s public welcomed the development while newspapers praised the decision to avoid the weight of expectation by staging an informal, unannounced meeting.

The spokesman was responding to a question on Modi’s surprise visit to Lahore, where he held talks with Sharif.

However Modi faced criticism from the main Indian opposition Congress Party as well.

Bilawal said the only solution to Pakistan-India issues was constant communication between the two countries, the Pakistani media reported. We hope that it is followed by a consistent policy of engagement to resolve the Kashmir dispute.

“He’s personalised diplomacy to an extent we haven’t seen in India since (India’s first prime minister) Jawaharlal Nehru in the 1950s”, she said.