006 Did Mr. Narendra Modi and Mr. Navaz Sharif really come together?

Topics for discussion: 006, Indo-Pak Relations, Nawaz Sharif, Narendra Modi

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Prior to his coronation as the Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi, has appeared hostile towards Pakisthan, during his election campaigns. Some of that unfriendliness, which was apparently owing to an electoral compulsion, seems to have waned.

When Mr. Nawaz Sharif got elected as PM of Pakisthan, for his third term, Mr. Manmohan Singh, the then PM of India, extended an invitation to Pak PM to visit India, which Mr. Nawaz reciprocated by extending a similar invitation to Mr. Singh. However, this didn't materialise owing to impending General elections in India, which occupied India's whole time during the last one year.

It is good that Mr. Narendra Modi, soon after his becoming PM of India, extended an invitation to Mr. Sharif, to attend Oath-taking ceremony of Indian PM in New Delhi. Fortunately, Mr. Sharif accepted it and attended it, which resulted in an aura of hope for revival of Indo-Pak Relations. Soon after the oath-taking and the customary dinner, Mr. Modi seems to have pressed Mr. Shariff for a promise to curb Pak-originating anti-India terrorist campaigns and punish the Mumbai Taj Hotel attack terrorists. Of course, Mr. Sharif promised.

But, can Mr. Sharif, really implement his promises? Probably he cannot. If he tries sincerely to implement his promise of curbing terrorism, he will be dethroned. We may have to keep in mind that Pakistan is virtually sitting on a live volcano of taliban terrorism. It has three forks. One is directed against India. The second is against the Western Christianity. The third is against its own Pak Govt. The talibans seem to want to capture the fortress of Islamabad and then wage a war with India and the Western World simultaneously.

India and Pakisthan can probably agree upon accepting the Line of Actual Control as an international boundary and treat the Kashmir dispute as closed, with a treaty of Permanent Peace. In this process, India may probably lose a part of its western territory in Kashmir, but Pak Occupied Kashmir (POK) because of India's lassitude, except for its occasional declarations that Kashmir is an integral part of India, seems to have become a fait accompli.

But this formalisation of LOC as international boundary, may never happen in real world, because talibans and terrorists in Pakisthan will not allow its Government to agree LOC as international boundary with India.

Nor, will Indian political parties, allow the Indian Government to concede LOC as international boundary.

004 Can we acccept the statements of Mr. Nawaz Sharif on their face value?

Nawaz Sharif (Former Prime Minister of Pakisthan):
The civilian government must itself run foreign policy and India should not be treated as an enemy country.

I found the above news in the hard copy print of an Indian newspaper. But I am unable to trace it on the internet in spite of my best effort. Mr. Shariff was said to have given the above statement while speaking at a meeting in Sindh, Hyderabad, Pakisthan.

Did Nawaz Shariff really say the above quote?
If he said it, was he really serious?
If he was really serious, what percentage of Pakisthan's population subscribe to his idea?
If majority Pakisthani citizens are going to support Shariff's view, will the Pakisthani army allow it?

Did Shariff lose his Prime Ministership in the past, owing to his excessive friendliness to India?

There are some more allegations against Mr. Sharif which need satisfactory resolution:

*Mr. Sharif was said to have met Osama Bin Laden five times.
*Mr. Sharif was said to have declared in his 1988 election campaign that he would hoist Pakistan's flag on Red Fort, New Delhi.
*Late Benazir Bhutto accused that Laden financed Mr. Sharif, to topple her Government.