Jonaid Iqbal in Islamabad
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Dr. Manmohan Singh met at the Royal Palace Hotel, New York for about an hour Sunday morning.
Many, however, expressed doubts whether the meeting would take place after Bharatia Janata Party (BJP) leader Narendar Modi, tried to enrage a large audience the same day in Delhi by saying that Nawaz Sharif had called Manmohan an old hag, which is a slur on the Indian leader who represents over one billion Indian public.
The scheduled morning breakfast meeting and the venue proposed by Pakistan Prime Minister was changed. Instead it took place where the Indian Prime Minister was staying.
After the meeting, Indian National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon described their meeting as ‘useful and constructive.’ Pakistan foreign secretary Jilani said the concerned authorities were asked to investigate all incidents along the Line of Control (LoC) in dispute Kashmir and ensure that there was no such recurrence.
As it turned out, Nawaz Sharid did not utter the offensive words sited by Modi and Indian media personnel who were in New York and covered the Pak PM’s reported briefing corroborated. The two leaders decided to task senior military officers (Director of Operations of the two armies) to continue to hold up the cease fire along the Line of Control along the disputed state of Kashmir.
Other irritant issues – such as Pakistan allegation of fuelling trouble in Baluchistan, and the Indian desire that Pakistan punish non-state actors responsible for 26/11 attack at Mumbai – might be looked into next year after the Indian election takes place.
Usually, practicing diplomats lean on the media to help in achieving fruitful diplomatic results. But it was a reverse case here. Both Pakistani and Indian media had turned hyper lacing their commentary with accusation, innuendo, and slurs. To boot, Indian politicians were advising their prime minister to cancel the meeting.
However, the fact is that Dr. Singh was also keen on doing something positive before returning home helped. He stuck to the meeting with Nawaz Sharif but changed the protocol. Instead of breakfast at Sharif’s place Dr. Singh held the meeting at his hotel. No joint statement was issued, and the two did not address news conferences.
Sharif accepted these changes. He, too, wanted the dormant peace process to roll out.
Anyway, he had already achieved a coup by inviting former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to Lahore.
However, problem came from different area. Before he spoke at the UN, Sharif was greeted by a group of Pakistani Christians protesters complaining that no [Christian] citizen had been invited to his reception while others had been asked.
Source: Weekly Holiday