Islamabad, October 5, 2024 – Senator Irfan-ul-Haque Siddiqui, the Parliamentary Party Leader of the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) in the Senate and Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, has described Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s announcement to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit as a promising development for Pakistan-India relations.
In a statement shared on the social media platform ‘X’ on Saturday, Senator Siddiqui emphasized that the Indian foreign minister’s participation could help ease tensions between the two neighboring countries. However, he also expressed concern over the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party’s stance on the event.
Senator Siddiqui criticized PTI for inviting only the Indian foreign minister to join its protest demonstrations, excluding other SCO leaders. He further commented, suggesting PTI highlight its so-called ‘remarkable achievements’ by taking the Indian foreign minister to visit over 200 destroyed defense installations and martyrs’ memorials— a pointed reference to recent unrest— to cement what he sarcastically termed the ‘eternal ties’ between PTI and India.
