Pakistan PM Shahbaz Sharif calls for 'serious and sincere talks' with PM Modi; says 'learnt our lesson, want peace with India'

Shehbaz Sharif, PML(N) leader and Pakistan PM

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has called for "serious and sincere talks" with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on "burning points like Kashmir," news agency ANI report on January 17.

In an interview with Dubai-based Al Arabiya TV, Sharif said that Pakistan has learned its lesson after three wars with India and stressed that now it wants peace with its neighbour.

"My message to the Indian leadership and Prime Minister Modi is that let's sit down on the table and have serious and sincere talks to resolve our burning points like Kashmir. It is up to us to live peacefully and make progress or quarrel with each other and waste time and resources," Sharif said reportedly.

"We have had three wars with India, and they have only brought more misery, poverty, and unemployment to the people," he added.

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"We have learnt our lesson, and we want to live in peace with India, provided we are able to resolve our genuine problems," Sharif said in the interview that was aired on January 16.

Sharif, in the interview also brought up the subject of Kashmir and said "Pakistan wants peace but what is happening in Kashmir should be stopped."

The Pakistan leader further spoke about both the countries having engineers, doctors, and skilled labourers. "We want to utilise these assets for prosperity and to bring peace to the region so that both nations can grow," he said.

"Pakistan does not want to waste resources on bombs and ammunition. We are nuclear powers, armed to the teeth, and if God forbids, a war breaks out, who will live to tell what happened?" he added.

India in November 2022 had lashed out at Pakistan at a United Nations (UN) debate for raking up the issue of Kashmir,  terming it as "desperate attempts to peddle falsehoods".

Pratik Mathur, Counsellor in India's Permanent Mission to the UN, said, "Jammu and Kashmir, let me repeat once again for his benefit, remains an integral and inalienable part of India, irrespective of what the representative of Pakistan believes or covets. Pakistan's desperate attempts to peddle falsehoods and a bad habit of abusing the sanctity of multilateral forums deserve our collective contempt and perhaps some sympathy as well."

Pakistan Foreign Affairs Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had spoken about alleged human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir. India's response to Pakistan's claims came during a key UN General Assembly meeting on the United Nations Security Council.

Pakistan, which is battling severe economic crisis, public discontent against the ruling regime due to flour, wheat crisis and fuel shortage among others is also faced with rising instances of terror attacks by the proscribed outfit Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which had ended a ceasefire with the country's security forces late last year, the report further added.