WASHINGTON: Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, has extended a sincere hand for talks with India in the hopes of resolving a number of critical issues, including the one in Jammu and Kashmir.
U.S. Ambassador Masood Khan has made similar requests for increased American involvement in the volatile area.
The Pakistani diplomat was mentioned in a Newsweek article about recent changes in the region as noting, “We have always pursued diplomacy with India.”
He stated, “The prime minister has once again made an offer for engagement; the US has also expressed its support for direct dialogue between Pakistan and India on issues of concern.”
“We hope there would be a reciprocal resonance from New Delhi,” Masood Khan said.
Indian measures, such as altering the demographics of the disputed territory, since its unlawful annexation of occupied Kashmir on August 5, 2019, have been called a threat to regional security by Ambassador Masood Khan.
It’s becoming worse and worse. The Pakistani envoy stressed that this issue went beyond simple annexation.
They are allowing their armed personnel to acquire land inside Jammu and Kashmir, and there was a new domicile law that threw open the floodgates for inflow of outsiders. This electoral reengineering of the constituencies is another way in which they hope to turn the Muslim majority into a minority.
The economic future of the neighborhood depends on stabilization in Afghanistan, Ambassador Masood Khan stated, discussing the regional situation.
We’re all trying to do the same thing, which is to get rid of terrorism and build up our infrastructure so that we can take advantage of the strategic location of our economies. Terrorism in any kind, he argued, stands in the way of using economic geography to increase connectedness and foster business collaborations.
