 "When PM Modi stunned all with surprise visit to Pakistan")
It was deep into the winters of 2015. Narendra Modi had been the prime minister of India for about 18 months, and had gone on a two-day visit to Russia in late December. On his way back, he had a scheduled day-long tour of Afghanistan — then not under the Taliban and with full diplomatic ties with India. On his way back to New Delhi, Modi surprised almost everyone.
It was Christmas day, and a Friday, when Modi made a surprise stopover in Lahore for a hug that he got from his then-counterpart Nawaz Sharif at the Allama Iqbal International Airport, and high tea. It was also Sharif’s birthday, turning 66.
Modi was accorded a red carpet welcome as the prime minister’s special IAF Boeing 737 plane made a smooth touchdown at 4.20 local time. Modi and Sharif then flew in a chopper to Pakistani leader’s Raiwind palatial residence in the outskirts of Lahore.
It was Modi’s first and only visit to Pakistan. Modi teased his hurriedly scheduled visit with a post on X, then called Twitter: “Looking forward to meeting PM Nawaz Sharif in Lahore today afternoon, where I will drop by on my way back to Delhi.”
Another post read, “Spoke to PM Nawaz Sharif & wished him on his birthday.”
What Modi, Sharif spoke when they met
As Sharif hugged Modi upon his landing at the Lahore airport and they left for the Pakistani premier’s nearby family estate, the host asked the guest, “So, you have finally come” — Reuters reported quoting a Pakistani foreign ministry official who was at the meeting.
Impact Shorts
More Shorts“Yes, absolutely. I am here,” Modi replied.
Later, then Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry told journalists that Modi had phoned Sharif earlier in the day to wish him on his birthday and asked if he could make a stop in Pakistan on his way home. A gesture of friendship that was in tune with Modi’s invitation to Sharif for his swearing-in ceremony in 2014.
Why recall Modi’s Pakistan visit
Now, nine years later, Sharif, whose brother Shehbaz Sharif is the incumbent prime minister of Pakistan, has recalled Modi’s visit with calls to end the “long-pause” in the India-Pakistan ties that started freezing over a series of terrorist attacks in India between 2016 and 2019 by outfits operating from across the border and with the backing of Islamabad and its influential army establishment.
Hailing Modi’s surprise trip to Lahore in December 2015, Sharif on Thursday hoped that both sides should look ahead with a positive approach. “We can’t change our neighbours, neither can Pakistan nor can India. We should live like good neighbours,” he said.
“When PM Modi called me from Kabul and asked to wish me for my birthday, I said he was very welcome. He came and met my mother. These are not small gestures, they mean something to us, especially in our countries. We should not overlook them,” Sharif said.
His remarks came after India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar visited Pakistan earlier this week —first by an Indian minister in nine years— for a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) conclave. Jaishankar also had “casual conversations” with his counterpart Ishaq Dar and also Shehbaz Sharif.
Commenting on Jaishanakr’s visit, Nawaz Sharif said it was a good beginning to revive the frozen ties. “This is how things should go ahead. We would have liked PM Modi to come but it was good that the Indian foreign minister came. I have said before that we must pick up the threads of our conversation,” Sharif said
“We have spent 70 years in this way (fighting) and we should not let this go on for the next 70 years. We [PML-N governments] have tried hard to work on this relationship to let it just go this way. Both sides should sit down and discuss how to go forward,” he said.
What’s Sharif’s role
Incidentally, it was Sharif whose premiership in Pakistan saw two Indian prime ministers taking efforts to normalise bilateral ties between the arch-rivals only to be strained over spurt in terror incidents in India.
Before Modi, the last visit to Pakistan by an Indian prime minister was in 2004 by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who passed away in 2018. Both Sharif and Vajpayee shared their birthday. Vajpayee was credited with bringing about a thaw in relations with Pakistan.
As it happened, continued support to terror outfits in Pakistan saw the Modi government link diplomatic dialogues to action against terrorism. India decided not to hold any bilateral dialogue with Pakistan saying talks and terror can’t go hand-in-hand.
Sharif blamed former Pakistan PM Imran Khan, now in jail, for deterioration in relations between the two countries. “Imran Khan used words that destroyed the relationship. As leaders of the two countries and neighbours, we should not even think, let alone utter such words,” Sharif said.
“I am not happy about the pause in the relationship. I can speak for the people in Pakistan who feel for the Indian people and I would say the same for Indian people,” Sharif said.
When asked whether a bridge builder between the two countries was required, he said “that is the role I am trying to play”.
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