Indo-Pak peace imperative, Janjua says after Bangkok meeting

ISLAMABAD: National Security Adviser (NSA) to the Prime Minister Lt Gen (retd) Nasser Khan Janjua, who had a clandestine meeting with his Indian counterpart Ajit Dovel last Tuesday in Thai capital Bangkok, has returned to Islamabad and maintained that Pakistan and India cannot afford animosity for an indefinite period of time since both are nuclear states and have the urge to develop their societies economically by getting rid of poverty and ignorance.

The general in a brief chat with The News here on Monday evening emphatically denied having any meeting with former prime minister Nawaz Sharif during these days and termed the story about such a meeting as sheer “kite-flying” without any basis. “Had I met Nawaz Sharif, there was no reason in hiding it. As no meeting took place, the media should have desisted from spreading rumours in this regard,” the NSA added.

General (retd) Janjua said that Pakistan believes in living in harmony with its neighbours and his meeting with Indian NSA is indicative of Pakistan’s desire. He said that both the NSAs are in constant contact with each other as the meeting of Tuesday wasn’t a new phenomenon. He said that Pakistan and India have no option but to live in peace with each other by resolving their disputes through dialogue. He declined to divulge details of what was transpired in the meeting but said that the two NSAs have agreed to continue contacting each other. Gen (retd) Janjua, who was the head of Southern Command, expressed satisfaction about the success of efforts for overcoming terrorist activities in that province. He said the law enforcing agencies (LEA) have successfully broken the back of insurgency in the province and the incidents of subversion have some other dimensions.He said, “Pakistan Zinda Bad slogan was difficult to raise in some parts of the province till the recent past but now Pakistan’s green flags are fluttering everywhere in those areas.”

The general said that the recent incidents of violation would also brought under control by the LEAs but at the same time government will have to concentrate on economic well being of the people of Balochistan on priority basis.