Though Pakistan and India on Friday made an attempt in Russia to revive a stalled bilateral dialogue process in a step towards ending recent bitter hostilities, opposition parties back in Pakistan were not impressed.
Mussadik Malik, the prime minister’s spokesman, in a conversation with Dawn, dubbed the meeting between the two subcontinental leaders as a “victory for Pakistan”. India initiated efforts for <g data-gr-id="17">revival</g> of bilateral talks after having unilaterally called off a secretarial-level meeting last year, he maintained. But soon after the two prime ministers — Nawaz Sharif and Narendra Modi — shook hands at the Congress Hall in Ufa signalling a ceasefire in a heated political arena, an infuriated senator Rehman Malik, of the opposition Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP), expressed sharp criticism of the ice-breaker meeting.
“The meeting (of) Modi with Sharif clearly demonstrates how disrespectful Modi was towards Sharif,” Malik was cited in a statement as saying.
The former interior minister compared Modi to “the czar of Russia” as he described how the two state leaders interacted.
“(Our prime minister) was made to walk through a long corridor towards Modi’s chair/throne. (Modi) didn’t show the slightest courtesy under diplomatic norms for his Pakistani counterpart to walk a few steps forward to receive him.”