Pahalgam: Nawaz Sharif counsels Pakistan PM, report says he's against aggressive postures

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has advised current PM Shehbaz Sharif to avoid aggressive moves and resolve the current India-Pakistan face-off diplomatically, according to a report.

Following the Pahalgam attack in which Pakistan-backed terrorists killed 26 people, India is bound to respond militarily and Pakistan has vowed to respond to any attack with equal force, raising fears of the two countries spiralling into a war.

Amid such fears, Nawaz has told Shehbaz that the government should utilise all available diplomatic resources to restore peace with India and should avoid taking an aggressive position, according to Express Tribune.

Nawaz is Shehbaz’s older brother and has previously been Pakistan’s prime minister thrice (1990–93, 1997–99, and 2013–17). He is the chief of their family-run party Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

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Sources in the PML-N told the Tribune that Shehbaz briefed Nawaz at their family residence Lahore and said that the Pahalgam attack was a false-flag operation by India. He is also said to have told Nawaz that the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty had raised the risk of war in the region.

This is not the first time that Nawaz had called for peace with India.

In 2018, Nawaz had asked why Pakistan “allows non-state actors to cross the border and kill 150 people in Mumbai”.

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“Militant organisations are active. Call them non-state actors, should we allow them to cross the border and kill 150 people in Mumbai? Explain it to me. Why can’t we complete the trial?” Nawaz told Dawn in an interview at the time.

The remarks led to a case of sedition against him at the time.

So far, Pakistan has offered an ’neutral’ investigation by a third-party into the Pahalgam attack. As for the response to Indian actions, Pakistan has dubbed the suspension of the Indus treaty as an “act of war” and has suspended all bilateral agreements with India, including the Simla Agreement of 1972, in retaliation.

Leading politicians have made inflammatory statements, with federal minister Hanif Abbasi saying that 130 Pakistani nuclear missiles are pointed at India and are ready to be launched. Separately, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, a former foreign minister and Shebaz’s coalition partner, has said that “either our [Pakistan’s] water would flow in this river or their [India’s] blood”.