Khan seeks restart of talks as Modi greets Pak

Pakistan has made a renewed pitch for resumption of its stalled dialogue with India – taking advantage of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's message to his counterpart Imran Khan greeting the people of the neighbouring country on the occasion of its National Day.

India did not officially respond to Pakistan's latest proposal for restarting the formal dialogue that remained stalled since 2013. Sources, however, told the DH on Saturday that India would try to keep a window open with Pakistan so that it could be used to explore restart of bilateral engagements in case the government, which would take office in New Delhi after the parliamentary elections, wanted to do so.

New Delhi has been maintaining that the stalled bilateral dialogue between India and Pakistan cannot restart unless and until Islamabad takes “immediate, credible and verifiable” action against all terror infrastructure in its territory as well as in areas under its illegal occupation.

Even as Government of India boycotted a reception hosted by the High Commission of Pakistan in New Delhi on Friday, Prime Minister did send a message to his counterpart in Islamabad on the occasion of its National Day – conveying “greetings and best wishes” to the people of the neighbouring country.

Khan, himself, first took to Twitter on Friday night to reveal that he had received the message from his counterpart in India. He quoted Modi conveying him that it was time for “people of the sub-continent” to “work together for a democratic, peaceful, progressive and prosperous region, in an atmosphere free of terror and violence”.

Pakistan was quick to make an attempt to turn the goodwill gesture by Prime Minister of India into an opportunity for it to once again seek resumption of the stalled dialogue. “I welcome PM (Prime Minister) Modi's message to our people. As we celebrate Pakistan Day, I believe it is time to begin a comprehensive dialogue with India to address & (and) resolve all issues, esp (especially) the central issue of Kashmir, & (and) forge a new relationship based on peace & (and) prosperity for all our people,” Prime Minister of Pakistan said in yet another post on Twitter.

It was Khan's first tweet that first made it public that Modi had conveyed his greetings to people of Pakistan, even as his government in New Delhi had boycotted the reception hosted by the neighbouring country's High Commission in the national capital of India. No representative from Government of India attended the reception that was hosted by Pakistan's envoy to India, Sohail Mahmood, on the eve of the National Day of his country.

New Delhi decided to boycott the reception as a mark of protest against Pakistan's decision to invite the leaders of the Hurriyat Conference and other separatist organizations of Kashmir to the event at its High Commission in India. The officials of some security agencies of Government of India even told the journalists and other guests walking into the High Commission of Pakistan to attend the reception that New Delhi had decided boycott the event – ostensibly in an attempt to dissuade them to take part in it.

Modi's message to Khan greeting people of Pakistan on its National Day came after more than a month of heightened tension between India and its western neighbour over the killing of at least 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel in a suicide terror attack at Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir on February 14.