India’s steel magnate Sajjan Jindal’s ‘unscheduled’ visit to Pakistan earlier this week has triggered intense speculation in Pakistan’s media that it ‘could be an effort from the leadership of both sides to revive the stalled bilateral dialogue’.
Jindal’s meeting with Premier Nawaz Sharif at the latter’s private residence in the country's hill station Murree, about 45 kms from Islamabad, was, however, criticised by opposition parties because of the secrecy maintained by the government.
Expressing concern over the development, Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) demanded a clarification from the government.
“We are concerned over the visit. Prime Minister Sharif has business relations with Indians,” PTI lawmaker Mian Mehmood-ul-Rasheed said.
Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz, however, retorted to opposition saying the there was nothing ‘secret’ about the meeting.
Jindal had arrived here on Wednesday with a small delegation from Kabul in a private aircraft. After a brief meeting at the Prime Minister’s House in Islamabad, the Indian delegation was driven to the nearby resort of Murree for a meeting with Sharif over lunch.
The Express Tribune, in an article, titled ‘PM in hot water over ‘secret’ meeting with Indian tycoon’, published on the front page , reported that “Sharif had found himself caught in another storm on Thursday, this time over a furtive huddle with an Indian steel magnate which is being labelled as back-channel diplomacy”.
The report described Jindal as a close friend of PM Modi and said that the meeting was believed to be part of ‘back channel diplomacy to arrange a meeting’ between Sharif and Modi on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Astana in June.
The Dawn, on the other hand, reported that Jinadal’s visit had ‘triggered intense speculations…with several politicians and analysts suggesting it could be the precursor to a possible meeting between the Pakistani and Indian Premiers in the near future’.
“Informed sources point out that it’s not possible for Mr Jindal to visit Pakistan without prior knowledge of the country’s civilian and military intelligence services,” the report added.
The News Daily also carried an article – titled “Politics or business? Indian steel tycoon Jindal meets PM in Murree”.
It said that the meeting was sought by the Indian delegation supposed to play a role for reduction in tensions.
The meeting, it too said, could also help in paving the way for a meeting between Sharif and Modi in Astana.
