PM invites Sharif to visit India
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was on Sunday quick to congratulate PML(N) leader Nawaz Sharif on his decisive victory in Pakistan’s general elections, which will give him a third term as that country’s Prime Minister, and invited him to India at a “mutually convenient time”.
In an unusually swift response even while counting of votes was under way in Pakistan, Dr Singh conveyed India’s desire to work with him to chart a new course in Indo-Pakistan relations. A PMO statement said: “The Prime Minister extended his congratulations to Sharif and his party for their emphatic victory in Pakistan’s elections.” It said the PM “expressed India’s desire to work with the new government of Pakistan in charting a new course for the relationship between the two countries.” Dr Singh also congratulated the people and political parties of Pakistan for braving threats and turning up in large numbers at the polling booths to exercise their franchise.
External affairs minister Salman Khurshid also said on Sunday that relations between the two neighbours would grow under the premiership of Nawaz Sharif. He said: “India welcomes whatever result that comes out of a democratic election. Our government has had relations with Nawaz Sharif. I hope we can continue to have good relations if he comes to power.” Mr Sharif too, in the course of his campaign, had voiced his desire to visit India apart from restarting the peace process between the two nations which he had left when then Pakistan Army Chief Pervez Musharraf threw him out of power in a coup in October 1999.
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