Pakistan’s Sharif calls for ‘critical and honest talk’ with Modi on ‘burning points like Kashmir’

‘My message to the Indian management and PM Modi is that let’s sit down on the desk’

Pakistan’s prime minister Shehbaz Sharif has called for “critical and honest talk” with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, after years of suspended relations between the two South Asian nations.

Speaking to Al Arabiya news channel on Monday, Mr Sharif said it’s time for the two nations to resume talks on “burning issues”, including Kashmir.

Mr Sharif said the three wars India and Pakistan have fought have “solely introduced extra distress, poverty and unemployment to the individuals.”

The Pakistani prime minister, who took power last year after Imran Khan’s ousting, said India and Pakistan are neighbours forever, if not by choice.

“It is upto us to live peacefully and progress, or quarall with each and waste time and resources.”

“We now have three wars with India and it solely introduced extra distress, poverty and unemployment to the individuals. We now have learnt our lesson and we wish to stay in peace, but for that we should be capable of resolving our real issues,” he added.

Mr Sharif further said that both the countries are nuclear powers and are well armed.

“Pakistan does not want to waste resources on bombs and ammunition. We are nuclear powers, armed to the teeth and if God forbid a war breaks out who will live to tell what happened.”

“My message to the Indian management and PM Modi is that let’s sit down on the desk and have critical and honest talks to resolve our burning points like Kashmir,” Mr Sharif said.

He also criticised India for “flagrant human rights violations” in the federal Indian territory of Jammu and Kashmir, which has remained at the centre of India-Pakistan rivalry.

He also said that the minorities in India were being persecuted.

“This must stop so that message can go around the globe that India is ready to have talks.”

India and Pakistan have had a hostile relationship since inception and share the one of the most militarised international boundaries with tensions further escalating in recent years after India snatched statehood of Jammu and Kashmir in 2019.