'Sharif's govt fails to withstand pressure'

India on Saturday said Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government failed to withstand pressure from within and that it was deliberately trying to wriggle itself out of the roadmap of engagement the two countries agreed upon at Ufa in Russia last month.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told journalists that several actions from Pakistan since the meeting at Ufa had made it amply clear that the neighbouring country had no interest in pursuing the roadmap. Swaraj said that when Sharif returned to Islamabad after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Ufa on July 10; he had to face sharp criticism in Pakistan for agreeing on a roadmap of engagement with India.

“He (Sharif) had then apparently made up his mind that his government would not allow the meetings agreed upon by him and our prime minister to take place,” she said.

She said that although India had on July 23 sent a proposal to hold the meeting between the NSAs in New Delhi on August 24, Pakistan had sat on it for 22 days and conveyed its acceptance only on August 14. New Delhi had also communicated to Islamabad on July 24 to fix dates for two other meetings agreed upon by Modi and Sharif – one between chiefs of Border Security Force of India and Pakistan Rangers and another between India’s Director General Military Operations and his counterpart  to explore ways to avert ceasefire violations.

Though the meeting between the DGs of the BSF and Pakistan Rangers were expected to take place before the NSAs parleys, Pakistan government proposed to hold the talks only on September 6.

Reacting to Sharif’s National Security Advisor Aziz displaying a purported dossier on the alleged role of RAW in terror incidents in Pakistan during a press conference in Islamabad, Swaraj said that India would not only give dossiers in response, but also produce a “live person” as evidence of terror emanating from Pakistan.