Pakistan will not back any terror act, Nawaz Sharif to tell Narendra Modi tomorrow

New Delhi: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will assure India’s new prime minister Narendra Modi, when he meets him at Hyderabad House on Wednesday that Pakistan will not back any terror act against India.

In an exclusive meeting with this newspaper on Monday, the Pakistani leader said : “I want to reassure India’s new prime minister and the people of India that my government will not support any acts of terror against India. Not by state actors or non-state actors. That will be my promise.”

His remarks come on the day that he attended the swearing in ceremony of India’s newest prime minister, days after four men attacked India’s mission in the western Afghan city of Herat. If the gunmen had succeeded in replicating 26/11, would have derailed Mr Modi’s masterly effort to forge a new relationship with India’s recalcitrant neighbor.

The Prime Minister, who seems determined to open a new chapter with his Indian counterpart, said that “with the kind of heavy mandate that I have received and now, with Prime Minister Modi’s incredible mandate, we have the backing of both our peoples to move ahead.”

Mr Sharif said that the “moment in history must be grasped, and turned to both our nations’ advantage.” He said that he felt the same sense of excitement as he did when he broke the ice with former prime ministers I.K.Gujral and Atal Behari Vajpayee, and then qualified that by saying that he expected Tuesday’s meet to go even further, and lead to a resumption of a substantive dialogue between the two countries that would bring peace to the region.

On the deferred MFN status that had been held back until a new government was sworn in, the Pakistan prime minister said that his government had taken a “conscious decision,” to do so.

‘Our focus must be to give our peoples a better tomorrow,” Mr Sharif said.