Islamabad: It is vital that Islamabad and New Delhi discover means to lessen tensions, a Pakistani daily said Thursday, hoping that the meeting between their national security advisors will bring positive results.
An editorial headlined “Border trouble” in the News International said that the animosity between Pakistan and India has continued to grow, adding that the lack of stability in “a volatile part of the world is of course something that will cause alarm in many capitals”.
Against this backdrop, with Pakistan’s Advisor to the Prime Minister on National Security and Defence Sartaj Aziz due to meet the Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on August 23 and 24, “Pakistan has been discussing strategies on what will be a key meeting”.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who met key officials including the army chief, has said the matter of firing across the LoC and “the promotion by India of terrorism in Pakistan needed to be strongly taken up”.
The daily said that “we must hope this meeting will bring positive results. It is vital that Islamabad and New Delhi discover a means to lessen the tensions”.
It added that New Delhi “appears to display no willingness to do so is disturbing”.
“Indeed, it has been an extremely acrimonious stance as far as Pakistan goes in all its dealings. The occasional words promising peace that come in from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi do not seem to translate into real action.”
The editorial said that accusations of “Pakistani intervention in Kashmir have continued to come in from Indian ministers and all these matters will need to be taken up at the meeting of the national security advisors”.
“There are also forecasts that the two prime ministers could meet again later this year at the sidelines of international summits and we must hope that this will lead to something tangible emerging before it is too late to salvage what seems to be a rapidly worsening situation.
“We cannot afford to allow it to worsen any further…”