Pakistan will not contact India for talks: PM's adviser

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, Tariq Fatemi, on Wednesday said Pakistan would not initiate contact with India for talks, adding that if India wants to enter a dialogue with Pakistan, they would have to take the initiative themselves, BBC Urdu reported.

“It was because of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that the talks were heading in the right direction. It was India who decided to put a halt to them. Now it is up to them; if they want negotiations, they will have to take the initiative themselves. We have no contact with India,” Fatemi said in an exclusive interview with BBC Urdu.

Further, Fatemi said cross-border tension between the two neighbours arose because of state elections in India.

"It now appears that the Bharatiya Janata Party's is using the anti-Pakistan agenda to support its candidacy. This is very unfortunate,” he said.

Addressing the Kashmir issue, Fatemi said, “Kashmir is the cornerstone of Pakistan’s foreign policy. It always has been and always will be.”

However, he stated that former president Pervez Musharraf had sought a change in the Kashmir policy, which he clarified that the government does not recognise.

“Musharraf went to Kashmir without consulting his corps commanders. We will choose a policy that complies with the Pakistani public’s wishes. Whatever Musharraf wanted for Kashmir, it’s in the past,” Fatemi said.