Pakistan’s former information minister calls for friendship with India

Lahore: Former information minister Fawad Chaudhry on Saturday said the time is ripe for friendship between archrivals India and Pakistan on an equal basis as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to take oath for a historic third term on Sunday in New Delhi.

Chaudhry, who was once close to jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, said, “Khan and ex-army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa were in favour of making friends with India.” The 48-year-old, who left Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party in 2023, was speaking at a seminar titled ‘Indian Election and its Effects on South Asia’ organised by the National Institute of Political Education here.

Pointing out that Indian Punjab is just a few kilometres away from here but Pakistanis have to take a flight via Dubai to go there, Chaudhry said: “There should be no visa between the two countries. Now, the time has come that both the archrivals need to talk of friendship on an equal basis.” Chaudhry warned that India and Pakistan will encounter substantial water challenges in the Indus Basin over the next 15 years, therefore, they will have to talk to each other and said, “Failure to accomplish cooperation over the matter of water could result in the region becoming unstable.”

The ideological divide between extremist policies of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) indicates that a coalition unity breakdown is imminent, he said, adding, “This instability suggests that the BJP may not conclude its tenure, which would allow (Congress leader) Rahul Gandhi to become the next prime minister of India.”