Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf, the party led by Imran Khan who is set to take oath as the country’s Prime Minister on August 11, is considering inviting the leaders of the SAARC countries including Indian premier Narendra Modi.
The PTI, led by 65-year-old Khan, has emerged as the single largest party in the National Assembly after the July 25 elections, but it is still short of numbers to form the government on its own. The cricketer-turned-politician has announced that he would take oath as Pakistan Prime Minister on August 11.
“The core committee of Tehreek-i-Insaf is considering inviting the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) heads including Mr Modi and a decision on this is expected shortly,” a leader of Khan’s party told news agency PTI.
He also termed Modi’s telephone call to Khan on his victory in the 2018 polls a welcoming sign to begin a new chapter in relations between the two countries.
A spokesperson for PTI, Fawad Chaudhry, also did not rule out inviting Modi to the swearing-in ceremony.
“A decision about it will be taken by the party in consultation with the foreign ministry in coming days,” he said.
PM Modi called Imran Khan on Monday to congratulate him on his party’s victory in the Pakistan general election, with both men discussing regional peace. Relations between the two countries have frayed in the last couple of years, with direct stalled talks and heightened border tension.
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In his call to Khan, Modi hoped that “Pakistan and India will work to open a new chapter in bilateral ties”.
Khan thanked Modi for his wishes and emphasised that disputes should be resolved through dialogue.
“Wars and bloodshed instead of resolving disputes lead to tragedies,” the hero of Pakistan’s cricket world cup win had said.
Khan in his victory speech had also said that better relations between Pakistan and India would be “good for all of us”.
“If India’s leadership is ready, we are ready to improve ties with India. If you take on step forward we will take two steps forward,” he had said.
In its first response to Khan’s victory, the Ministry of External Affairs had said it hoped Pakistan’s new government would work for a terror-free South Asia.
The relations between India and Pakistan remained tense until 2014. Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had travelled to Delhi to attend Modi’s oath taking ceremony and the Indian premier had in December 2015 made a stopover in Lahore to greet his counterpart on his birthday.
The India-Pakistan ties nose-dived in recent years with no bilateral talks taking place.
The ties between the two countries had strained after the terror attacks by Pakistan-based groups in 2016 and India’s surgical strikes inside Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The sentencing of former Indian navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav to death by a military court in April last year further deteriorated bilateral ties The two sides often accuse each other of ceasefire violations along the Line of Control, resulting in civilian casualties.
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