Will hold talks with India after 2019 polls: Imran
NEWDELHI: Prime Minister Imran Khan has blamed the upcoming general election in India for what he described as “anti-Pakistan rhetoric” emanating from New Delhi, and said Islamabad remains hopeful of resuming talks after the polls.
Speaking during an interactive session at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, he said he took the initiative for extending an olive branch to India after assuming office, but Pakistan’s gesture was “sadly rebuffed by India.”
Khan said he believed the upcoming general election in India was the “reason behind its anti-Pakistan rhetoric” and hinted at the resumption of talks after the polls, according to Pakistan’s state-run APP news agency.
“Now we are hoping to wait for [the] election and will again resume talks with India,” he said.
Peace between India and Pakistan, Khan said, is important to ensure that the resources of the two countries can be diverted towards human development rather than being wasted on an arms race.
“Peace with India is not just important for Pakistan, but for India as well. The money that should be diverted to human resources ends up in a non-productive arms race,” he said in response to a question on Pakistan’s efforts to maintain cordial ties with India.
Khan told the gathering of business leaders and investors from across the world that peace and stability with both India and Afghanistan are important for Pakistan.
India’s external affairs ministry has previously said that talks and terror can’t go hand in hand.
Peace in Afghanistan is “critical for Pakistan” and Pakistan is currently facing “some low amount of terrorism coming in from Afghanistan,” he added. He expressed his government’s commitment to supporting peace initiatives in Afghanistan.
MUMBAI:NCP chief Sharad Pawar Tuesday indicated that a national level pre-poll opposition alliance for the 2019 general elections was unlikely but said he was trying to bring the non-BJP parties together on a common platform in a bid to defeat the ruling NDA.
Pawar was speaking at ‘Mumbai Manthan’ organised by news channel Aaj Tak here.
“Today’s political situation is much more like the one in 2004. It does not seem possible for a single party to remain in power in 2019. No party would have that mandate,” Pawar said.
“It will be like 2004 when no party got the majority but a government under Manmohan Singh was formed and continued to rule for 10 years”.
Pawar also rejected the theory of grand alliance of opposition parties at national level adding that the situation would be different in each state and regional parties would play significant role.
He further said that no one will be projected as prime ministerial candidate by the Opposition for the upcoming 2019 elections. In fact, even the Congress leadership is of the same view and PM will be decided by the coalition partners after the elections, he pointed out.
“I agree with P Chidambaram (former union finance minister) that no leader would be projected as PM candidate from the opposition for 2019 elections. PM will be decided by the coalition partners post polls. I have had talks with Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his thoughts are not very much different with what Chidambaram had said,” Pawar said.