Pakistan says Modi-Sharif surprise meeting was not a planned one

New Delhi/Islamabad: The surprise visit also highlighted the strong friendship between the two leaders that grew after Mr Sharif attended the swearing-in ceremony of Mr Modi. In Lahore was received by Mr Sharif with a warm hug at the tarmac of the Allama Iqbal International Airport. 

 

The two PMs then got into a helicopter to head for Mr Sharif’s Raiwind palatial residence in Lahore’s outskirts. They spent about 80 minutes together, when Mr Modi greeted family members at the wedding of Mr Sharif’s grand-daughter Mehrun Nisa. 

 

Briefing the media after the meet at the Jati Umrah residence of Mr Sharif, Pakistan foreign secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry said: “PM Modi’s visit to Lahore was not a planned one. It was organised on a short notice after Mr Modi expressed his wish to come here en route to Delhi from Afghanistan.” 

 

Congress spokesman Ajoy Kumar, questioning the visit on Friday, said: “It is unfortunate we get to know about the Prime Minister’s visit through a tweet. India-Pakistan relations are not so good, yet that he stops over there on his way back from another country.” Raising some further questions, Mr Kumar asked: “The Parliament session got over just a few days back, why was Parliament and the country left in the dark? Why didn’t the Prime Minister take the country and Parliament into confidence?” The visit appeared to have stunned Mr Modi’s harshest critics, including the Communists and Marxists. With the  CPI and CPM “welcoming” the move, the Congress found itself somewhat isolated. 

 

The Congress also tried to attack Mr Modi by claiming that the visit was “pre-arranged by a businessman.” Party leader Anand Sharma said that the “engagement with Pakistan is frivolous”. Referring to the businessman, he said: “The same industrialist who has a business partnership with the ruling establishment in Pakistan was there for the last two days. This is out in the open.” He asked the PM to reveal the name of the businessman himself.

 

The Congress, however, refused to respond to queries about Rajiv Gandhi’s surprise visit to Moscow in 1985.