Soon after Indian High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is looking forward to visiting Pakistan for SAARC summit, the government on Tuesday reiterated that no decision has been taken so far in the regard.
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Basit also questioned Indian authorities for not allowing him to participate in various events in India and blamed the Indian government of directly managing to stop him from attending a number of events there, the officials said. According to ANI’s sources, Basit has been summoned over discourtesy to Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Gautam Bambawale in Karachi.
Asked about “Indian atrocities” in Jammu and Kashmir, the high commissioner said Indians were as concerned about the people of Kashmir as anyone else in the world. In his speech, Bambawale had reinstated India’s stand on Kashmir and insisted that it is India’s internal matter.
A press official in the Pakistan High Commissioner’s office told IANS that “The office categorically rejects the Indian complaint and has conveyed to them that the cancellations of Pakistan High Commission events in India were becoming a routine”.
The organisers didn’t give a reason for the cancellation.
Bambawale said the way forward between Pakistan and India was to talk about every issue possible and grab the low-hanging fruit because “that’s where we’d be able to increase trust and confidence”.
“There are problems in both Indiaand Pakistanand you [Pakistan] should focus on resolving your problems before looking into the problems of other countries”, he said.
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Interestingly, in what can be seen as an effort to soothe the flaring tension between the two nations, Bambawale had pointed out that even while tensions were high between the two nations, there had been contacts at the operational level. But the event was cancelled at the last minute and the Indian envoy was informed only an hour before it would have taken place.
