Pakistan’s Army Chief General Raheel Sharif has called for Pakistan’s relations with India on equal footings without bargaining on its honour and respect.General Sharif was speaking at a reception in London in his honour hosted by Pakistan’s High Commissioner in UK Syed Ibne Abbas. He said Pakistan has also strived for building and maintaining cordial ties with Afghanistan.The Army Chief said that the Operation Zarb-e-Azb against terrorists has been continued with success and it will be carried out till complete elimination of terrorism. He said there is a marked decline in incidents of terrorism in the country.Raheel Sharif said that Pakistan has given sacrifice of its 5000 soldiers in the war against terrorism and these sacrifices would not go in vain. The General touched upon several important issues of interest to Pakistan including firm resolve to protect the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, against which conspiracies are being hatched by some powers but his remarks about relations with India matter much in view of recent developments in the region. Despite extreme restraint shown by Pakistan, India is continuing with its policy of killing and injuring people on this side of the Line of Control and the Working Boundary. It is even violating the spirit of the meeting between Director-General Pakistan Rangers and DG, BSF of India where an understanding was reached not to violate the ceasefire. Apart from this, Indian civil and military leadership is on record having hurled threats on Pakistan on a number of occasions in the past few months. In this backdrop, Pakistan Prime Minister demonstrated vision and established country’s peace credentials by offering a workable formula for defusing tension and moving forward. Expression of similar sentiments by General Raheel Sharif clearly meant that Pakistani civil and military leadership is on the one page as far as relations with India are concerned but instead of taking advantage of the situation, Indians are bent upon vitiating the atmosphere further. This was evident from the reaction given by India to the peace initiative of the Prime Minister, as New Delhi retorted that Pakistan should ‘de-terrorise’, which clearly showed the non-serious attitude of the Indian policy and decision-makers. Such a childish reaction to a serious and sober initiative exposes real designs and intentions of India before the world community. This blame-game is devoid of ground realities and indicates India sinking deep into extremist mindset. We would, therefore, urge saner elements in India to come to the rescue of their own country as it is a path to destruction and not peace, security and progress, which is need of the entire region including India.
pk.shafaqna.com
