Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan has claimed that he was forced by country’s former Army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa to make good ties with India in a bid to develop cordial relations between two countries, Pakistan’s news channel Dunya News reported. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief also alleged that Bajwa was ‘not a man of principles’.
Khan further said that there would be no constitution left in the country if elections are not held in 90 days. It would lead him to take direct action, he added.
This comes in the backdrop of Pakistan denying of having any backchannel talks with New Delhi. “At this stage, there is no backchannel between Pakistan and India,” foreign office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch earlier said at a media briefing.
With regular cross-border terrorism, ceasefire violations, territorial disputes among others, India and Pakistan share complex ties. It went through a rough patch in 2019 after India’s warplanes pounded a training camp run by Jaish-e-Mohammed in Pakistan’s Balakot as a response to the Pulwama terror attack that year. The relation had a further dent after the revoking of Article 370 and 35a from Jammu and Kashmir.
India has maintained its desire for a normal relations with the neighbouring country, however, insisted that the onus would be on Islamabad to create a terror and hostility free environment for such engagements.
According Reuters, there is a possibility of a potential breaktrough in the bilateral relations between India and Pakistan after both the countries held secret discussion in 2021. It reported that the Line of Control (LoC) ceasefire agreement was renewed in the same year.
Source: Hindustan Times