Imran Khan 'bowled a googly' at India with Kartarpur corridor: Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi

Pic Courtesy: Reuters

Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said that Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan “bowled a googly at India” by opening the Kartarpur Corridor. A report in Pakistan-based Geo News, country’s foreign minister made the remark at a ceremony in Islamabad to mark the first 100 days of Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government.

Further talking about relationship with India, Qureshi said that the approach of Pakistan is “people-centric”, adding that “Pakistan will take two steps forward if India takes one”.

This comes two days after Imran Khan reached out to India during the ground-breaking ceremony of Kartarpur corridor. Khan said that both India and Pakistan had committed “mistakes” in the past, adding that the countries should not continue to “live in the past”.

The Pakistan Prime Minister had further said, “There is just one issue between us – Kashmir. Can’t we resolve it? Man has reached the Moon and we are not able to resolve one issue between us. All that is needed is political leadership with determination on both sides. There is no issue that cannot be resolved by dialogue.”

“Where Pakistan and India stand today, we have seen such a situation for 70 years now. We will stay stuck this way unless we break the shackles of the past and stop blaming each other. There have been mistakes on both sides. (But) We should not live in the past. It should be used to learn lessons,” said the Pakistan Prime Minister.

India has maintained that there cannot be any talks with Pakistan unless the neighbour stops supporting terrorism. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj asserted that Kartarpur corridor was in no way linked to the dialogue process between the countries. She reiterated that the moment terrorism stops, India will resume the dialogue process with Pakistan.

The ground-breaking ceremony of the Kartarpur corridor was held on Wednesday. Union ministers Harsimrat Kaur Badal and HS Puri were sent by government to attend the event.