ISLAMABAD
\nMinister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar said on Thursday that ever since the incumbent government came to power, there has been no backchannel diplomacy going on between Pakistan and India \u201cuntold to the rest of the world\u201d.
\n\u201cAt this moment, there is no such thing under way,\u201d she said during a Senate session.
\nRabbani\u2019s statement comes a day after Indian media reported that New Delhi invited Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial to attend the foreign ministers\u2019 and chief justices\u2019 meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, which is scheduled to take place in Goa in May.
\nAccording to reports, Pakistan is yet to respond to the invite sent by India through its High Commission in Islamabad.
\nLast week, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif asked his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi to hold serious and sincere talks to resolve burning issues, including Kashmir, and said the United Arab Emirates leadership could play an important role in bringing India and Pakistan to the table.
\nHowever, a day later the Prime Minister\u2019s Office clarified that talks with India can only take place after the country reverses its \u201cillegal action of August 5, 2019\u201d, which was aimed at illegally altering the demography of the Muslim-majority state of India-occupied Kashmir.
\nDuring a session of the upper house of the Parliament today, Khar said that backchannel diplomacy was only desirable when it was result-oriented.
\nShe stated that Pakistan had always taken initiatives to promote peace. \u201cHowever, right now, the cross-border hostility [from India] is of a unique type.\u201d The BBC documentary on Modi has shown the world why we have stood on this position, the minister said, adding that Pakistan had learnt from history but some countries in the region have not.
\nShe went on to say that oftentimes, on international forums, Pakistan was asked to normalise its ties with India. \u201cTo them, our response is that they should look at the messages we have received from India.
\n\u201cThe messages that we are getting are all conflagratory [\u2026] Pakistan has the largest interest in unleashing [the potential of] this region but when you have a government on the other side whose prime minister says that their nuclear assets are not for Diwali [\u2026] then what can we do,\u201d Khar added.
\nSeparately, in a weekly press briefing earlier today, Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch reiterated Khar\u2019s statement. \u201cThere is no backchannel diplomacy between India and Pakistan.\u201d
\nIn response to a question on India\u2019s SCO invitation to Bilawal, she confirmed that Pakistan had received the invite. \u201cBoth India and Pakistan are members of the SCO. India is hosting the conference this year and as the chairman, it has sent an invitation to us.
\n\u201cThe invitation is being reviewed. A decision regarding participation in the meeting will be taken after deliberation,\u201d Baloch told the media.
\nCommenting on the BBC documentary on Modi \u2014 which includes revelations about a secret British probe held into the Gujarat riots and the Indian prime minister\u2019s role in it \u2014 the FO spokespersons said that there was \u201cnothing new in it\u201d.
\n\u201cPakistan has always been vocal about the massacre of Muslims in Gujarat. BBC has exposed the excesses of Narendra Modi and the BJP,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar said on Thursday that ever since the incumbent government came to power, there has been no backchannel diplomacy going on between Pakistan and India \u201cuntold to the rest of the world\u201d. \u201cAt this moment, there is no such thing under way,\u201d she said during a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-309899","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-top-news"},"yoast_head":"\n