Pakistan invites ‘hardliner’ Narendra Modi for visit

Pakistan on Monday invited India's prime minister-elect Narendra Modi to visit the country in a move aimed at reviving ties between the two countries that have fought four wars.

The invitation was confirmed by Pakistan's high commissioner Abdul Basit on Monday. Official dialogue between the two countries has been at a standstill since January 2013.

The invitation to Modi is the more significant as he is perceived in Pakistan as a right-wing, anti-Muslim hardliner.

A local report says the Nawaz Sharif government has contacted Pakistan's leading envoys around the world, asking them for an urgent assessment of the new dispensation in India.

Among these ambassadors or high commissioners Syed Jalil Abbas Jailani (United States), Masood Khan (United Nations-New York), Zamir Akram (UN-Geneva), Masood Khalid (China), Noor Muhammad Jadmani (Iran), Ms. Naghmana Hashmi (European Union/Belgium), Abdul Basit Khan (India), and Zaheer Aslam Janjua (Russian Federation).

The invite to Modi came during a telephone call from Pakistan Prime Minister Sharif to Modi on Friday, the day the results of the Lok Sabha elections were announced.

India's foreign ministry played down the invite, claiming that it was routinely extended and did not imply that Modi would be travelling to Pakistan.

The last Indian leader to visit Pakistan was Atal Bihari Vajpayee (also of Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party) in 2004 during the deliberations of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.

In an interview to Hindi daily Hindustan last April, Modi said that India's foreign policy ''must be based on mutual respect, support and brotherhood. But our own self-interest must be paramount. We don't want to be aggressive against anyone nor be faced with aggression. But just think, would it be possible to have a good relationship with any neighbouring country that encourages terrorism in India?''

In a press release issued by the Pakistan high commission on Monday, Basit said Sharif hoped ''the decisive mandate received by the BJP would help push forward the agenda of peace for development''.

He said the Pakistan leadership was committed to ''a result-oriented dialogue process'' and hoped ''comprehensive bilateral engagement would resume sooner than later''.

With both Sharif and Modi enjoying a strong mandate, the hope in Pakistan is that a peace process stalled since last year could get fresh impetus.