Nawaz Sharif briefs General Bajwa about Jindal visit: Report

ISLAMABAD (TIP): Pakistan’s civilian leadership informed the military top brass that the recent meeting between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Indian steel magnate Sajjan Jindal was part of back-channel diplomacy, BBC’s Urdu service reported on Thursday.

This was on a day leading Pakistan daily ‘The Nation’ quoted Sharif ‘s advisor on foreign affairs, Sartaj Aziz, as saying that he would not rule out a meeting between the Pakistan PM and his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, on the sidelines of Shanghai. Cooperation Organisation summit in June in Kazakhstan.

“Pakistan could consider the meeting if interest was shown from the other side,” Aziz told the paper, with the report adding that the Indian businessman, Sajjan Jindal, had “conveyed a message of the Indian Premier to the Pakistani leader”.

Meanwhile, the BBC report stated that during one of the recent meetings, Sharif had taken the Army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, into confidence over his parleys with Jindal at the hill resort of Murree. General Bajwa subsequently took his officials into confidence over the matter. “The Army chief told his officers that the meeting was a part of back-channel diplomacy,” the report stated. Pakistan’s foreign office declined to comment on the meeting, saying it was of private nature. Maryam Nawaz, Sharif ‘s daughter, tweeted, “Mr Jindal is an old friend of the Prime Minister. There was nothing secret about the meeting and it should not be blown out of proportion. Thank you.”

According to sources, Jindal visited Pakistan upon the insistence of important Indian officials, calling it an endeavour on India‘s part to reduce friction between the two countries.

Jindal’s visit came at a time when Sharif was under pressure from the Supreme Court over a probe into his offshore assets revealed in the Panama Papers leak. The meeting sparked speculation with several politicians and analysts suggesting it was aimed at a possible Sharif-Modi meeting in the near future.

Others suggested that the unannounced visit was to talk about the release of Kulbhushan Jadhav, an alleged Indian spy sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court. Many of Sharif’s opponents had claimed that whenever his government comes under pressure, “the Modi government” comes to his rescue. (TOI)