Hina Rabbani Khar clarifies NO backdoor diplomacy is taking place with India

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar answered a PTI senator query in the Senate that back channel diplomacy must take place if it is fruitful but “no backdoor diplomacy is currently taking place with India” as the hostility coming in from New Delhi is of unique nature.

The speculations were grown when yesterday India invited Pakistan foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to participate in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO) foreign ministers’ meeting in Goa in May.Pakistan is yet to respond to the invite sent by India through its High Commission in Islamabad.

She maintained that relations between the two nations were marred by a number of provocative steps by India. Khar added that the BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi being banned by India vindicated Pakistan’s viewpoint on the Gujarat massacre.

Last week, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif asked his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi to hold serious and sincere talks to resolve burning issues, including Kashmir, and said the United Arab Emirates leadership could play an important role in bringing India and Pakistan to the table.

However, a day later the Prime Minister’s Office clarified that talks with India can only take place after the country reverses its “illegal action of August 5, 2019”, which was aimed at illegally altering the demography of the Muslim-majority state of India-occupied Kashmir.