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Tag: Sajjad Haider Khan

  • Visa If He Wishes: Pakistan’s Offer to Bhagwant Mann

    Visa If He Wishes: Pakistan’s Offer to Bhagwant Mann

    Pakistan has said it would consider issuing a visa to Indian Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann if he wishes to visit the country for a Punjabi cultural conference in Lahore later this month.

    Foreign Office spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan made the remarks at his weekly briefing on Friday, responding to a question about Mann’s possible visit to attend the World Punjabi Conference, scheduled to be held in Lahore from 27 to 29 November.

    Mann, who leads the Aam Aadmi Party government in Indian Punjab, disclosed the invitation on 23 October and questioned whether he would be allowed to travel to Pakistan. Khan said a visa could be granted “if he wished to visit the country”.

    The spokesperson was careful to add that whether the Indian government permits the travel is “an entirely separate matter”. No visa has been issued and no travel arrangements have been finalised.

    The invitation came from Pakistani Punjabi poet Baba Bashir Husain Najmi and Punjab minister Ramesh Singh Arora.

    Visas for pilgrims

    At the same briefing, Khan said Pakistan issued more than 9,000 visas to Indian religious pilgrims in 2025 and over 4,000 to Sikh pilgrims in the first six months of 2026. Movement of pilgrims through the Kartarpur Corridor has been suspended since 7 May 2025.

    The conference invitation has drawn attention because high-level political visits between the two countries are rare, and any trip by a sitting Indian chief minister to Lahore would carry symbolic weight beyond the cultural programme.

    Punjabi language and culture are shared across the border, and cultural exchanges have long been seen as one of the few channels that keep people-to-people contact alive even when official relations are strained. The World Punjabi Conference is part of that tradition.

    For now, the ball is in Mann’s court — and in New Delhi’s. Islamabad has signalled the door is open; whether the visit happens will depend on the Indian chief minister’s decision and his government’s clearance. If the visit goes ahead, Mann would be among the most senior Indian politicians to travel to Pakistan in recent years, underlining how unusual the trip would be.

  • Pakistan Rules Out Unconditional Talks With Afghanistan

    Pakistan Rules Out Unconditional Talks With Afghanistan

    ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has ruled out unconditional talks with Afghanistan, insisting that any future dialogue must be tied to a verifiable mechanism that guarantees an end to terrorist activities launched from Afghan soil.

    Addressing the weekly media briefing on Friday, Foreign Office spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan said Pakistan was not avoiding engagement but would only join discussions that produced tangible results. According to him, Pakistan would welcome sincere efforts by friendly countries to help resolve the long-running dispute and promote regional peace.

    The statement came as Russia renewed its readiness to mediate between the two neighbours. The spokesperson said he was not aware of any separate, formal Russian mediation initiative currently under discussion, while stressing that Islamabad remained open to engagement that delivered concrete outcomes. Russia is the only country to have formally recognised the Taliban government, and Moscow’s special envoy for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, had earlier renewed the offer to facilitate a settlement if both sides sought it.

    Moscow Format ends without agreement

    The spokesperson said the failure of the latest round of the Moscow Format consultations on October 5 to issue a joint communique highlighted the central obstacle to normalising relations. According to him, the Afghan delegation was unwilling to accept language on terrorist networks operating from Afghanistan that had been acceptable in the previous year’s document.

    “The fact that no joint communique was issued after the Moscow Format is self-evident that Afghanistan did not accept the formulation which had been acceptable until last year, particularly about the presence of terrorist networks in Afghanistan,” Mr Khan said.

    Pakistan’s core demand, he reiterated, is action against the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and other militant groups that Islamabad says use Afghan territory to launch attacks across the border. The Taliban authorities have rejected these allegations and have avoided taking a categorical position on the banned outfit.

    The spokesperson recalled that previous mediation attempts had also failed to produce a lasting settlement. Qatar and Turkiye helped broker a ceasefire last October, but the subsequent round of talks did not hold. Saudi Arabia separately hosted discussions, while China held talks between the two sides in Urumqi in April. None of these efforts, he noted, resolved the disagreement over terrorist groups and the measures needed to prevent cross-border attacks.

    Warning to India

    On a separate note, the spokesperson rejected what he called provocative remarks by Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who had threatened a bigger strike in response to any future terrorist attacks while speaking at the National Defence Conclave 2026 in Delhi. Mr Singh had recalled Operation Sindoor, describing it as a decisive response to terrorism.

    “We reject and condemn the Indian Defence Minister’s provocative remarks entailing a threat of Indian aggression against Pakistan,” Mr Khan said, adding that such statements reflected a hegemonistic mindset and posed risks to regional peace and stability in South Asia.

    He reminded New Delhi of what he described as the consequences of its military aggression in May last year, when Pakistan, according to him, demonstrated both its capability and resolve to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity. Any future aggression, he warned, would be met with an even stronger response, and he urged India to abandon what he termed its belligerent posture and act responsibly for lasting peace in the region.