ISLAMABAD - Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry has said Pakistan is still willing to open Kartarpur border crossing with India despite tensions straining ties between Islamabad and New Dehli.
In an interview to an Indian media outlet over telephone, the minister said: “War and animosity are not the solutions of any conflict.”
He reiterated the PTI government’s resolve to open Kartarpur border crossing with India for Sikh pilgrims.
“The Kashmir issue is the bone of contention between Pakistan and India,” maintained Fawad and was of the view that there was a situation of political turmoil in the internal politics of India.
A day earlier, the federal minister had said Indian government was making statements against Pakistan to divert attention from a corruption scandal targeting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He said Pakistan rejected war mongering by the ruling elite which was an attempt to bail out Modi from calls for resignation amid a mega corruption scandal.
“We reject war mongering by ruling elite of India everyone know Indian government strategy is to use hate mongering against Pakistan basically to bail PM Modi from call for resignation post-French jets Rafael deal and divert attention of Indian public from this mega corruption scandal,” said the minister.
Referring to India’s Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi’s recent statements, the information minister said that this explains the tirade by the BJP against Pakistan.
He said cancellation of Pakistan, India foreign ministers’ meeting was unfortunate, although the future strategy India had to prepare itself in terms of bilateral relations.
In an interview to the Hindustan Times, the information minister said war was not a solution to anything. “War will not be viable option. Both the countries should resort to negotiation.”
Fawad said the main issue between the two neighbouring countries was that of Kashmir. He said the government was ready to talk on every issue.
“In the past seven decades, we have fought three wars with each other and we can’t change our neighbours,” he said.
He further said that as elections were coming up in India and anti-Pakistan slogans were doing well, but in Pakistan situation was not the same.
