Sajjan Jindal, brother of Indian steel magnate Naveen Jindal ‘secretly’ met Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday triggering speculations of backchannel contacts aimed at reviving stalled bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Pak media reported. It also alleged that Jindal bypassed the terms of Pakistani Visa. Sharif was at the receiving end of Pakistan’ oppostion parties as the meeting comes in the backdrop of heightened tensions with India.
In a front page report headlined “PM in hot water over ‘secret’ meeting with Indian tycoon”,The Express Tribune said Sharif had “found himself caught in another storm on Thursday, this time over a furtive huddle with an Indian steel magnate which is being labelled as back-channel diplomacy”.
“The Indian steel magnate headed straight to Murree upon arrival in Pakistan even though his visa did not specify that he could travel to the hill station… Jindal’s visa, bearing the number 769903, issued on April 25, 2017 allowed the holder to visit only Islamabad and Lahore,” wrote another Pakistani newspaper, The Express Tribune.
Pakistan’s Samaa TV, which claimed to have access to Jindal’s travel documents, said that the Modi aide was exempt from police reporting in Lahore. Not just that, he then violated his visa to meet the Pakistani PM at his residence in the hill town of Murree
According to a Times of India report, Jindal could be the person who facilitated the impromptu Christmas day meeting that December between Modi and Sharif. The Indian government denied it.
“Mr. Jindal is an old friend of the prime minister. Nothing ‘secret’ about the meeting & should not be blown out of proportion. Thank you,” Maryam tweeted. The family members of Sharif received Jindal at the Islamabad airport after he come from Afghanistan. Jindal was later escorted to Murree in an official protocol where he had an hour-long meeting with the prime minister.
Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tahreek-i-Insaf (PTI) alleged that “Sharif had a secret meeting in which Jindal conveyed the message of India’s Prime Minister Narendera Modi to Sharif over the issue of Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav who has been awarded death sentence by a Pakistani military court”.
Meanwhile, a resolution was on yesterday submitted in Pakistan’s Punjab Assembly against the “secret” meeting of Sharif and Jindal. Punjab Assembly Opposition leader Mian Mahmoodur Rashid submitted the resolution in the assembly, saying Sharif held a “secret” meeting with a three-member Indian delegation led by businessman Jindal in Murree.
“Jindal brought the message of Modi (which seems to be about Kulbhushan Jadhav). The people of Pakistan should be told as why the premier kept his meeting with Jindal secret. What was the purpose of this meeting at a time when India is bent upon isolating Pakistan in the world,” the resolution said.
PTI inputs
