Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday tasked PPP Chairman and former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari to present Pakistan’s “case for peace” on the global arena in the aftermath of the recent military escalation with India.
The military confrontation between India and Pakistan came as tensions over last month’s Pahalgam attack continued to build up. On the night of May 6-7, New Delhi launched a series of air strikes in Punjab and Azad Kashmir, resulting in civilian casualties. Islamabad responded by downing five Indian jets.
After intercepting drones sent by India and tit-for-tat strikes on each other’s airbases, it took American intervention on May 10, when tensions between the two countries peaked, for both sides to finally drop their guns as a ceasefire was reached. India has since continued its aggressive posturing even as Pakistan has warned against any further military aggression and offered talks.
The military flare-up saw China expressing solid diplomatic support to Pakistan, but there wasn’t a country other than Israel to stand with India without hyphenating it with Pakistan. Reports said a day ago that finding itself friendless in the conflict, India has started taking revenge on countries who helped Islamabad in the recent military flare-up.
Amid the current situation, Bilawal posted on X that he was contacted earlier today by the prime minister who requested that the former top diplomat “lead a delegation to present Pakistan’s case for peace on the international stage”.
Bilawal said he was honoured to accept the responsibility and remained committed to serving the country in “these challenging times”.
The PPP said the committee would also “inform the international community about Indian aggression and its false propaganda”.
The government has yet to share more details on who else would be included in the delegation and which specific countries would be engaged.
In a similar development, the Indian government announced that seven all-party delegations would visit key partner countries, including members of the UN Security Council, later this month to present the country’s stance on terrorism and “project India’s national consensus”.
“Members of parliament from different parties, prominent political personalities and distinguished diplomats will be part of each delegation,” said a press release from India’s Press Information Bureau.
It said the following Indian lawmakers would lead the seven delegations: Indian National Congress’ Shashi Tharoor; Bharatiya Janata Party’s Shankar Prasad and Baijayant Panda; Dravid Munnetra Kazhagam’s Kanimozhi Karunanidhi; Janata Dal-United’s Sanjay Kumar Jha; Nationalist Congress Party’s Supriya Sule and Shiv Sena’s Shrikant Eknath Shinde.
Pakistan has said Britain and other countries, in addition to the United States, played a major role in de-escalating the fighting. Diplomats and analysts say the ceasefire remains fragile.
US President Donald Trump said after the ceasefire was struck that talks should take place in a third-country venue but no dates or location for the talks have been announced.
PM Shehbaz’s peace offer
A day ago, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif offered India to sit for a comprehensive dialogue to settle contentious issues, including Kashmir and jointly fight terrorism, reminding New Delhi that the neighbouring countries fought three wars in the past and gained nothing but miseries of the people.
“After settling disputes like Kashmir and water distribution, we can talk on trade and counter-terrorism as Pakistan is the worst affected country by terrorism which lost 90,000 lives and over $150 billion economic losses,” PM Shehbaz said while addressing a ceremony marking Youm-i-Tashakur (Thanksgiving Day) at Pakistan Monument.
Addressing the ceremony, PM Shehbaz had said, “We have won the war but we want peace. We have taught our enemy a lesson but we condemn aggression. We want this part of the world to be as prosperous and progressive as others through hard work, undying efforts and living like peaceful neighbours.”
