Islamabad (Staff Report/Agencies): Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar has said that there has been no backchannel diplomacy going on between Pakistan and India, ever since the incumbent government came to power.
“At this moment, there is no such thing under way between Pakistan and India,” Khar said while addressing at the Parliament’s Upper House. She added that backchannel diplomacy was only desirable when it was result-oriented.
She reiterated that Pakistan had always taken initiatives to promote peace. “However, right now, the cross-border hostility from India is of a unique type.”
The state minster’s comes a day after Indian media reported that New Delhi invited Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial to attend the foreign ministers’ and chief justices’ meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, which is scheduled to take place in Goa in May.
According to reports, Pakistan is yet to respond to the invite sent by India through its High Commission in Islamabad.