PM Nawaz sees election win as mandate for peace with India

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Shairf in an interview to a British newspaper ‘Telegraph’ said he saw the PML-N’s win in the general elections as a mandate for peace with India.

In the interview Nawaz claimed that there was no India-bashing during his campaign for the elections. “We don’t believe in such slogans. There have been such slogans in the past, but not now. In fact, I very cleary spoke about good relations with India even before the elections were happening,” the newspaper quoted Sharif.

According to the prime minister he had made his mandate clear of reaching out to India and resolving all outstanding issues including Kashmir through dialogue. During the interview, the prime minister stressed on an end to the arms race between Pakistan and India as he urged the South Asian neighbours to end their conflict over Kashmir.

When asked if the Pakistan Amry would accept peace with India and a decrease in the defence budget, the prime minister replied “we’re all on the same page.”

The prime minister said that 40,000 people had lost their lives in the fight against terrorism adding that talks with terrorists could be held if they took them seriously. The prime minister during the interview reiterated that drone attacks were against the sovereignty of Pakistan and were a hindrance to relations with the US.