Ready to hold talks with India, war not an option: Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif

NEW DELHI: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday said that he was ready to hold talks with India as war is not an option.

“God forbid, if there is a nuclear flashpoint, who will live to tell what happened? So war is not an option,” said Sharif, adding that Pakistan is prepared to talk, provided India is serious.

Addressing a conference in Islamabad, he also said that despite being a nuclear power, Pakistan is not an aggressor and has nuclear facilities only for defence purposes.

Sharif further said that the two countries had fought three wars in the past 75 years, which deprived Pakistan of resources that would have otherwise been spent on development and prosperity of the people.

“But the neighbour has to understand that we cannot become normal neighbours unless abnormalities are removed, unless our serious issues are understood and addressed through peaceful and meaningful discussions,” he added.

Ties between India and Pakistan have been at a low since August 5, 2019 when Article 370 was abrogated in Kashmir.

Meanwhile, India has always reiterated that it will begin a dialogue with Pakistan once the latter stops encouraging cross-border terrorism.

“India cannot allow cross-border terrorism to become the basis of starting a discussion with Pakistan. It is not possible to have a normal relationship with Pakistan until there is abrogation of this policy of cross-border terrorism,” said External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, earlier in June.

“Pakistan is obviously an exception when it comes to the neighbourhood. The fact is we cannot allow terrorism to be normalised,” Jaishankar added.