Pakistan PM Imran Khan congratulates PM Modi on electoral victory

ISLAMABAD

: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has congratulated Narendra Modi over BJP’s landslide victory in the elections and pledged to work with him for peace and prosperity in South Asia.


“I congratulate Prime Minister Modi on the electoral victory of BJP and allies. Look forward to working with him for peace, progress and prosperity in South Asia,” Khan said on Twitter.

Foreign Office spokesperson Dr Muhammad Faisal said that dialogue between Islamabad and New Delhi is the only way to resolve all outstanding issues. “We remain committed to the same, irrespective of whoever forms the new government in India,” he said.

A day before the formal announcement of election results, foreign ministers of Pakistan and India held an unexpected informal meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) gathering in Kyrgyzstan.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said he had conveyed his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj about Pakistan’s desire to resolve all issues through consultation. This was the first FM-level interaction between the two countries since Khan had formed the government last year.

But for an ordinary Pakistan, BJP’s victory does not appear to be a welcoming development, considering the sequence of events that had incessantly kept the ties between the two countries on the boil following the 2016 terror attack in Pathankot.

Nevertheless, the polls were viewed in Pakistan in the backdrop of events that took place following the terrorist attack in Pulwama. The suicide bombing was claimed by a Pakistani-based group,

Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), prompting PM Modi to send fighter jets to conduct airstrikes, the first since the 1971 war, in Balakot in northwestern Pakistan.

The incursion, just weeks before the polls, according to Pakistani observers, had a huge symbolic significance and propaganda value for the Modi government to whip up nationalist fervour. Even, Prime Minister Imran Khan had said before expressing his wish last month that BJP should win the Indian elections as they are more prone to holding dialogue with Pakistan that Modi’s war hysteria was an attempt to win elections.

Improvement in relations with India has been a top priority of Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI)’s government since it came into power last year. Despite repeated offers of dialogue, it could not make any progress with the BJP government to revive the stalled talks between the two countries. Several top PTI leaders, including PM Khan, however, believed that New Delhi would revisit its pre-election stance towards Islamabad after the polls.

“There may be a better chance of peace talks with India and some kind of settlement in Kashmir could be reached if PM Modi’s BJP wins the general elections,” PM Khan had told a group of journalists last month.