ISLAMABAD: The government has formally sent invitations to parliamentary leaders for a meeting to be held at Prime Minister House on Monday to discuss prevailing tense relations with India over the Kashmir issue and to evolve a joint strategy.

In order to display national unity on the Kashmir issue and Pakistan-India relationship, opposition parties have decided to participate in the meeting.

“The government has sent invitations to (the) leaders of different parliamentary parties for Monday’s meeting at PM House to evolve a joint response on Kashmir and situation on LoC (Line of Control),” said an announcement by the PM’s Office here on Saturday.

When contacted, the senior vice-chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), Shah Mehmood Qureshi, said he and Dr Shireen Mazari had been nominated by party chairman Imran Khan to attend the meeting.

Meeting on Kashmir, ties with India to be held tomorrow

Confirming that he had received an invitation from the government, Mr Qureshi said that despite having political differences with the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), the PTI had decided to participate in the meeting because it wanted to send a message to India that all political parties in Pakistan were united on the Kashmir issue.

When asked to explain what his party wanted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to do in the prevailing situation because the PTI and all opposition parties have been accusing Mr Sharif of showing a lenient attitude towards his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, Mr Qureshi said first they would like to hear from the government why the situation had become tense.

Mr Qureshi, who served as the country’s foreign minister during the previous PPP government, said the government would have to explain as to why India had adopted a tough stance despite Mr Sharif’s “policy of appeasement” with it.

The PTI leader said that for the first time in the country’s history, they saw the two prime ministers developing personal relationship which was evident from Mr Modi’s visit to Jati Umra, the residence of Mr Sharif, and exchanges of gifts.

The parliamentary leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Syed Naveed Qamar, also confirmed that he had received the invitation from the prime minister for the meeting.

Speaking to Dawn, he said the opposition leaders of both houses of the parliament, Syed Khurshid Shah and Aitzaz Ahsan, and parliamentary leader in the Senate Taj Haider might accompany him in the meeting.

Mr Qamar said his party had decided to attend the meeting to show national unity on the Kashmir issue.

He, however, was not so optimistic about the outcome of the meeting, saying that they expected a briefing from the government on the present situation along the LoC.

The decision to hold a meeting of parliamentary leaders on the Kashmir issue had been made during a meeting of the federal cabinet on Friday.

Meanwhile, PPP co-chairman and former president Asif Ali Zardari has urged the international community to help resolve the Kashmir dispute. In a statement issued here, the former president called for restraint.

In a late-night development, the prime minister talked to Mr Zardari by telephone and invited him to attend the proposed meeting. It has been learnt that besides inviting the parliamentary leaders the government had now decided to invite the party heads to the meeting.

Published in Dawn October 2nd, 2016