Nawaz Sharif wants diplomatic channel to be used to ease tensions between India, Pak: Report

Lahore: As Pakistan’s former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has not yet condemned the Pahalgam terror attack, local media says he wants diplomatic channel to be used to deescalate tensions between Pakistan and India.

The 75-year-old three-time former premier is the chief of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). His younger brother Shehbaz Sharif is prime minister while his daughter Maryam Nawaz is chief minister of Punjab province.

Neither Nawaz and Maryam have condemned the Pahalgam terror attack nor issued any statement over the incident so far.

However, The Express Tribune newspaper quoting sources in the PML-N said: “Nawaz Sharif wants his government to utilise all the available diplomatic resources to restore peace between the two nuclear armed states. Nawaz is not keen on taking an aggressive position.”

It said that Shehbaz Sharif briefed Nawaz during a meeting in Lahore on Sunday on the decisions taken by the National Security Committee (NSC) meeting in the wake of the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) by India following the Pahalgam terror attack.

“India’s unilateral decision to suspend the water treaty has heightened the risk of a war in the region,” Shehbaz said.

Earlier on his return to Lahore from London, journalists sought Nawaz’s comment on the Pahalgam attack, but he refused.

Opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) senior leader and former foreign minister Moonis Elahi lambasted the elder Sharif to keep mum over the Pahalgam incident.

“There has been a mysterious silence of Nawaz Sharif after India suspended the IWT and took other extreme measures against Pakistan. Is Nawaz-Modi interests being above Pakistan’s interests,” he said in a post on X.

On April 22, terrorists opened fire in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam killing 26 people, in the deadliest attack in the Valley since the Pulwama strike in 2019.

The Resistance Front (TRF), a proxy of the banned Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), claimed responsibility for the attack.