LAHORE: Non-governmental influentials from Islamabad and New Delhi are engaged in backchannel diplomacy in a new effort to calm longstanding tensions which, if successful, may result in a visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Pakistan, Geo News quoted business tycoon Mian Muhammad Mansha as claiming.
Talking to a group of businessmen from Lahore Chambers of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) on Wednesday, Mansha said: “In a month, Narendra Modi could come here if the two [nations] can get their act together.”
There should be “no permanent enemies” with the two neighbours to work to resolve their disputes, said Mansha, who operates the country’s largest conglomerate, the Nishat group.
Pakistan and India, he said, need to resolve their issues and increase bilateral trade.
“Until 1965, 50 to 60 percent of Pakistan’s trade was taking place with India,” he told the businesspersons, “We need peace.”
He added India had the business expertise to offer to Pakistan, and Islamabad too could offer New Delhi many things.
Mansha also insisted it was time to do away with the “corruption mantra” to save the economy, adding the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) should be shut down.
Why the government of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) was hesitating to privatise loss-making public enterprises, he questioned.
Ties between the nuclear-armed rivals have been on ice since a suicide bombing of an Indian military convoy in occupied Kashmir in 2019.
Later that year, Prime Minister Modi withdrew Kashmir’s semi-autonomous status in order to tighten his grip over the disputed territory, provoking outrage in Pakistan and the downgrading of diplomatic ties and suspension of bilateral trade.
But the two governments in January last year re-opened a back channel of diplomacy aimed at a modest roadmap to normalising ties.
