Pakistan Ready For Conditional Bilateral Talks With India, Says Pak Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi

New Delhi/Islamabad, August 31: Amid tensions since the Indian government scrapped the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said Islamabad is ready for "conditional" talks with India. "Pakistan is ready for conditional bilateral talks with India," Pakistani media quoted Shah Mahmood Qureshi as saying. India has maintained no dialogue can take place until Pakistan stops sheltering terrorists on its soil. Imran Khan Warns World of India-Pakistan Nuclear War if Kashmir Issue Remains Ignored.

Here it may be noted that two days ago Pakistan Foreign Ministry's spokesperson Mohammad Faisal said Pakistan will not hold any dialogue with India. "Pakistan has always favoured bilateral dialogue on the Kashmir issue but now it's not possible," Faisal told media. Irked over India's decision to end the special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan suspended bilateral trade with India and sent back the Indian envoy. India, Pakistan Agree to Attend SAARC Foreign Ministers' Meet in New York.

Besides, Pakistan permanently suspended all people-to-people cross-border measures such as bus and train services. On August 29 when an alert sounded in Gujarat over a possible attack by Pakistan trained commandoes, India said that it was high time that Pakistan started behaving like a "normal neighbour" instead of pushing terrorists into a neighbouring country, and also "do normal talk and normal trade".

"It is important for them (Pakistan) to now start behaving like a normal neighbour. What do normal neighbours do? You don't push terrorists into a neighbouring country. You do normal talk, normal trade. This is not something which is happening from Pakistan," the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said at a briefing. India maintains abrogation of provisions of Article 370 that granted special powers to Jammu and Kashmir is an internal issue.

With Pakistan virtually isolated globally in its many attempts to get international censure for India over Kashmir, the MEA spokesperson said that Islamabad "has been exposed globally and is projecting wrong pictures of violence" in Kashmir. "Pakistan must stop spreading rumours on Kashmir," Kumar said.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 31, 2019 01:38 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).