News Analysis India

Tag: Pakistan PM

  • Who Is Ishaq Dar? Pakistan’s Newly Appointed Deputy Prime Minister. world news

    New Delhi: 73-year-old veteran politician and Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar was appointed the country’s deputy prime minister on Sunday. According to a notification issued by the Cabinet Division, the appointment was made by Prime Minister Sharif “with immediate effect and until further orders”.

    The announcement comes at a time when both Pak PM Sharif and Dar are away in Saudi Arabia to attend a World Economic Forum’s moot.

    Dar who is a member of Shehbaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party has served as finance minister in two previous governments. He was the party’s go-to person for all economic problems, serving as finance minister for the fourth and last time in the previous Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) coalition government.

    Despite being the party’s finance expert for decades, surprisingly, Dar was appointed as the foreign minister when Shehbaz Sharif established his cabinet in March.

    Dar also shares close ties with former premier Nawaz Sharif as his son is the son-in-law of the elder Sharif.

    Dar was expected to be appointed chairman of the Senate, the upper house of the Parliament. However, he lost the race last month when the PML-N struck a deal with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), led by former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, to secure its support for the coalition government.

    The party consented to allocate the positions of president and chairman of the Senate to the PPP, leaving Dar with no alternative but to accept a different role within the government.

    The PML-N and the PPP agreed on a power-sharing deal to form the coalition government even though the former prime minister Imran Khan-backed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-backed independents won majority seats at the 266-member National Assembly.

    It is not the first time a deputy prime minister has been appointed. Chaudhry Parvez Elahi served as Deputy Prime Minister during the tenure of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) from June 25, 2012, to June 29, 2013. His role at that time was mostly symbolic as he was rewarded by then-President Asif Ali Zardari. for supporting the PPP government.

  • Kashmir only problem between India and Pakistan, can be solved through talks: PM Imran Khan

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: Weeks after Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Bajwa seemed to soften his stand towards India, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday said Kashmir was the only problem between the two countries and that could be solved through talks.

    “Our only dispute is Kashmir and it can only be resolved through dialogue,” Khan said while addressing the Sri Lanka-Pakistan Trade and Investment Conference in Colombo. 

    The Pakistan PM said he had held talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he assumed power on the way forward, but the move did not succeed.

    “Immediately when I came into power, I approached our neighbour India and explained to PM Modi that the way forward for the subcontinent is to resolve our differences through dialogue. I didn’t succeed but I am optimistic that eventually sense will prevail. The only way the subcontinent can tackle poverty is by improving trade relations,” he added.

    Earlier, Bajwa had said the two countries must resolve the Kashmir issue in a “dignified and peaceful manner”. 

    India has maintained that though it prefers to have normal relations with neighbouring countries, the onus is on Pakistan to create conducive atmosphere.