Pakistan

Top civil-military huddle 'finalises agenda' of India dialogue

Army chief General Raheel Sharif, ISI chief call on PM Nawaz Sharif at PM House in Islamabad

Abdul Manan August 18, 2015

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif meets COAS General Raheel Sharif at the PM House in Islamabad on Tuesday. PHOTO: PID

ISLAMABAD: A meeting between the civil-military leadership has finalised the agenda of the upcoming national security advisor-level talks scheduled to be held on August 23 in New Delhi, sources said.

Army chief General Raheel Sharif called on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at the PM House in Islamabad on Tuesday to deliberate on the proposed agenda.

Officially, the PM House stated that “matters relating to the internal security situation of the country were discussed in the meeting."

However, sources said the agenda has been finalised.

Some participants pushed for issues such as Samjhota Express, involvement in Balochistan and violations across the LoC to be discussed in an upfront manner with India. It was decided, however, that while these issues should be discussed, the focus should remain on the resumption of secretary-level talks.

The civil and military leadership discussed various options in this regard, sources said.

Director-General Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt Gen Rizwan Akhtar, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz and Special Assistant Tariq Fatemi also attended the meeting.

Read: Sartaj Aziz to visit India for talks on August 23

Other issues, including the country’s internal security, the Pur Aman Balochistan programme, law and order situation in Karachi and relations with the Afghan government after Afghan leaders' recent outbursts, also came under discussion.

The participants hoped a recent meeting with Afghan leaders would give positive signals to them as Pakistan was already doing enough to curb terrorism.

Meanwhile, sources added, the civil-military leadership was warned about further attacks on government and security installations. The meeting agreed that only good intelligence could foil such attacks.

COMMENTS (12)

Brar | 9 years ago | Reply The Indian Army chief can not dare to sit as Genleral Shareef isseen in the picture itspeaks volumes as to who calling the shots . Iran,Afganishtan, India all are culprits only Noble soul.Pakistan ?

ajeet | 9 years ago | Reply @javaid Military never gave the politicians time to get to know how to rule. Anyway, Arabs abs their descendants were never known to have democratic temperament.

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Zahid | 9 years ago | Reply Our hero General Raheel Sharif Zindabad only man and institution which can handle our country problem

ajeet | 9 years ago | Reply So now Nawaz got approval from his boss? Funny style of democracy in Pakistan.

tictactoe | 9 years ago | Reply The headline of this news speak volumes about who rules this country

K B Kale | 9 years ago | Reply God knows which Sharif is the 'real' boss!

abid | 9 years ago | Reply There was a time when kashmir dispute used to be on top of india pakistan dialogue.Now pakistan has been made so weak that India is dictating terms to it.This is what happens when you are nir united.There are 55 so called muslim nations around the world but are so much divided and are fighting and killing each other on pitty issues like shia and sunni wahabi and sufi.Only Allah can save us.we have no hope from today's leadership who are most interested in keeping themselves on seats of power even if it means killing hundreds and thousands.

Striver | 9 years ago | Reply @Khurram: Our political leadership is focused on self-preservation and and their bank balances abroad. Incapable of anything else. But we keep electing them back. I guess "once bitten twice shy" is phrase no-body understands in Pakistan.

javaid | 9 years ago | Reply @khurram if our politicians capable of doing their responsibilities no army general will interfere in their domain. Please correct yourself.

Usman | 9 years ago | Reply Good. The PM needs to be told mangoes and sarees are not the beginning and the end of diplomacy.

Khurram | 9 years ago | Reply I have never ever seen or heard of Indian Army Chief who is head of the third largest army in the world advising Indian Prime Minister on foreign affairs. Why not our own COAS confines to his professional responsibilities and the matters that entail his rank..

S.R.H. Hashmi | 9 years ago | Reply The meeting in Islamabad between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Gen. Raheel Sharif, which was also attended by ISI chief Lt-Gen. Rizwan Akhtar, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Adviser on Foreign Affair Sartaz Aziz and Spcical Assistant Tariq Fatemi would of course be to develop guidelines for Sartaj Aziz’s forthcoming visit to New Delhi for talks on August 23. While it is of utmost importance for Pakistan to develop friendly relations with all neighours including India, as well as with the rest of the world, I think it is about time that our leaders realized that with Narindra Modi in the saddle, there is just no hope of that happening. With India determined, and successful in marginalizing Pakistan, there is hardly any possibility for India to accept Pakistan as a near-equal and develop good relations with it. If we look around in the immediate neighbourhood, apart from China, there is hardly any country we could count on. As for Iran, we had excellent relations with it but that was way back in Shah’s times and after that, our relations have shown a downtrend and a stage has now reached where India is much closer to Iran than we are. India even has defence pact with Iran which will allow the use of Iranian port by India. And with the building of Chabahar port in Iran with Indian help, quite near our Gwadar port, the two countries will get closer still. With Ashraf Ghani taking over as President in Afghanistan, our relations with Afghanistan, which had remained strained throughout Hamid Karzai’s rule, started improving but the honeymoon proved short-lived and Ashraf Ghani also recently pointed fingers at Pakistan saying “Pakistan still remains a breeding ground from where mercenaries send us messages of war.” And another friend Pakistan stands to lose is UAE with which, and with the rest of Middle East, our reluctance to play a positive role in connection with Yemen conflict did not go well. This has been highlighted by Dawn in its August 18 issue through its report ‘Modi steps into Pakistan-UAE breach’. And the sentiment was very clearly expressed by UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dr. Anwar Mohammed Gargash who said “Proximity, history, cultural affinity, strong links between people, natural synergies, shared aspirations and common challenges create boundless potential for a natural strategic partnership between India and UAE” adding “the need for a close strategic partnership between UAE and India has never been stronger or more urgent.” I think instead of concentrating full time on things like Karachi operation, with focus on MQM yet others left nearly untouched, as attack on MQM MNA Abdul Rashid Godil shows, and trying to improve relations with India which is impossible with Narindra Modi in the saddle, our civilian and military leadership should look at the broad spectrum, a bit beyond Karachi and elsewhere in Pakistan where bigger problems exist, both as regards terrorism and corruption - as the easy killing of Punjab Home Minister Shuja Khanzada proves - as well as outside our borders, otherwise we may end up losing some more of our friends to India. Karachi

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