Nawaz-Modi meeting was Indian initiative: Sethi

LAHORE: Senior analyst Najam Sethi has said that Nawaz-Modi meeting was decided at the last moment and its initiative was taken by India who worked out the five-point joint declaration.
He was talking to Aapas ki Baat host Muneeb Farooq on Geo News. Giving an in-depth analysis on the current political situation vis-à-vis Nawaz-Modi meeting in Russia, he said Pakistan could not decline the offer for the meeting because Pakistan had started talking of Indian terrorism in the country and for this it wanted to talk to India, for which the meeting was a good opportunity. In case of Pakistan’s refusal, India would have taken advantage of it. The issues which India raised in the past have this time been raised by Pakistan, he added.
He said Mumbai attacks incident was mentioned at the meeting because Pakistan has already been asking for proofs of Lakhvi’s involvement in the incident. He said the situation on Line of Control is not in favour of Pakistan because its army is already engaged within the country. India wants to keep the LoC issue burning so as to weaken Pakistan. Sethi said India had prepared a strong case against Pakistan for not banning Lakhvi, Hafiz Saeed and Syed Salahuddin and sanctions on Pakistan were afoot but China vetoed the resolution and saved Pakistan, prompting, however, Indian protest over the veto. Sethi said Pakistan included the point of Mumbai terror attacks after the advice of China.
Sethi said Nawaz Sharif needed not invite Modi to Pakistan, since Modi is scheduled to visit Pakistan to attend Saarc summit next year; It is unlikely that Indian prime minister absent himself from a Saarc summit only because it is being held in Pakistan. By accepting the invitation, Modi showed his cleverness; he had been already compelled to visit Pakistan.
The senior analyst said two interests worked behind Indian prime minister’s wish to meet his Pakistani counterpart; one is that Modi wanted to prepare ground in India for his Pakistan visit second is that Narendra Modi wants to weaken mitigate Pakistan’s efforts to take the issue of Indian terrorism in Pakistan to the United Nations. Through Nawaz Sharif’s invitation to Modi, the latter has achieved the said two objectives and exhibited better diplomacy.
About extension to the Rangers for their stay in Sindh, Sethi said the PPP wanted to remove the Rangers from Sindh after their picking the PPP men and levelling accusations on Asif Zardari, which had created an environment of clash. The Sindh government has announced to monitor the Rangers activities. Further, they have given extension in Karachi only in order to confine it, Sethi said and added that Sindh government has impressed upon the federal government and the army that it would not let Rangers continue its activities since Zardari knows that the federal government cannot impose governor’s rule in Sindh.