PAKISTANI prime minister Nawaz Sharif will attend Indian prime minister-elect Narendra Modi's inauguration on Monday (May 26), his office said, in an unprecedented diplomatic move aimed at mending strained bilateral ties.
Sharif's attendance will be a first in the history of the two countries.
Like all other heads of government from the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) which includes Pakistan, Sharif had also been formally invited by India this week.
"Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has decided to visit India and attend the swearing-in of… Modi," his spokesman said today (May 24).
Pakistan's foreign ministry said Sharif will hold bilateral talks with Modi on the morning of May 27 and will also meet India's President Pranab Mukherjee.
Modi will take the oath as prime minister on Monday, 10 days after his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) scored a landslide victory, securing the first majority by a single party in 30 years.
"It's very good news that Nawaz Sharif has accepted Mr Modi's invitation," BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar told reporters in New Delhi. "It will mark a new beginning in our ties."
Sharif has hailed Modi's "impressive victory" and many diplomats hope the two men can thaw ties between the neighbours.
Sharif has cited his working relationship with Atal Bihari Vajpayee, India's last prime minister with the BJP as a reason for optimism, according to diplomatic sources.
It was during Sharif's second term in 1999 that Vajpayee rode a bus to Lahore to sign a peace accord, raising the prospect for normalisation between the two neighbours.
Three months later, the countries embarked on the Kargil conflict – though Sharif has blamed his then-army chief General Pervez Musharraf who went on to overthrow him in a coup, for provoking the fighting without his knowledge.
"Vajpayee had said you can choose your friends but you can't choose your neighbours. Mr Modi is following just that" principle by extending an invitation to Sharif, Javadekar said.
Talat Masood, a political analyst and retired Pakistani general, said Sharif had the backing of the nation's powerful army.
"I think the army is backing (his decision to attend) otherwise he would not go. He does not go against the advice of the army," he said.
Either way, "Pakistan conveyed a positive gesture to India", said the chairman of the religious right-wing party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI), an ally of Sharif's government.
"The decision to attend… is a welcome sign," said Maulana Fazalur Rehman, who also head a parliamentary special committee on Kashmir. He added that close ties with India "may help resolve the Kashmir issue".
Omar Abdullah, the chief minister of Indian-held Kashmir, echoed similar sentiments.
"I hope that this will mark a new beginning in ties between our two countries. The people of J & K (Jammu and Kashmir) will be watching closely," he said on Twitter.
"Can't help feel sorry for others taking oath or attending because the only photo op that will matter now will be the Modi-Sharif handshake."
