PM Nawaz invited Jindal to Pakistan, claims Indian journalist

Shankar Jha also criticised the Indian government's policy on Kashmir

An Indian journalist has claimed business tycoon Sajjan Jindal visited Pakistan on the invitation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and that he wasn't sent by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Speaking to a private Pakistani news channel, journalist Prem Shankar Jha said, "Jindal visited Pakistan on Nawaz Sharif’s invitation as he wasn’t sent by PM Modi’s advice."

Jha also criticised the Indian government's policy on Kashmir, stating dialogue was needed to resolve the situation between both countries.



“The Modi government is fast losing out all options. The situation [in Kashmir] is so grim that I don’t see any option of dialogue is left. I think that India doesn’t want to move towards dialogue.”

“After seeing the conditions of Kashmir, I want to die of shame,” he said further adding that “the path we are on will lead us to hell.”

PM Nawaz Sharif found himself caught in a storm over a furtive huddle with the Indian steel magnate which is being labelled as back-channel diplomacy.

An Indian delegation led by Sajjan Jindal – a close friend of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi – met Premier Nawaz at his private residence in Murree on Wednesday, away from the media glare.

Although the government and ruling party initially kept mum about the meeting, speculation after private news media broke the story prompted the prime minister’s daughter, Maryam Nawaz, to confirm the development on her Twitter account. “Mr Jindal is an old friend of the prime minister. Nothing ‘secret’ about the meeting and [it] should not be blown out of proportion,” she tweeted.



A common friend of Nawaz and Modi, Jindal is thought to be an interlocutor or, at times, a facilitator in some meetings between the two heads of government during the past three years.