ISLAMABAD: State Minister for Information Marriyum Aurangzeb said on Friday Indian businessman Sajjan Jindal’s recent visit to Pakistan was not discussed by the prime minister and chief of army staff.
“Jindal is a friend of the prime minister and met him in his personal capacity,” she said in a statement. On May 11, a news report quoted official sources as saying that during a meeting Nawaz had taken COAS General Qamar Bajwa into confidence over Jindal’s visit to Pakistan. The news report read that Pakistan’s civil leadership had informed the army that the recent Nawaz-Jindal meeting was a part of back-channel diplomacy. It further stated that the COAS had also informed his officials about the matter. In April, Jindal made an unannounced visit to Pakistan and met Nawaz. Jindal, who is also said to be accompanied by other businessmen, met Nawaz in his personal capacity in Murree, where the premier had gone for a private trip. The meeting came at a time when people were being killed due to Indian shelling on the Line of Control and Working Boundary almost daily.
Indian brutality in Indian-held Kashmir was also on its peak. Nawaz’s daughter Maryam Safdar, the government’s “unofficial spokeswoman”, had also tweeted over the matter, writing Jindal is an old friend of the prime minister and that there was nothing ‘secret’ about the meeting and should not be blown out of proportion.
