Islamabad: Analysts believe that Pakistan’s invitation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Heads of Governments (CHG) meeting is a protocol and not a political stunt.
A noted News agency quoted sources in the Pakistani Foreign Office as saying that as the host, this is a formal invitation and is part of the host country’s process of inviting all member countries for the meeting (15-16 October).
‘Part of protocol’
Political analyst Kamran Yusuf told the agency, ‘Inviting Prime Minister Modi and all other member countries is a mandatory protocol, which every host country follows. Pakistan has also done the same. I do not see it as a political stunt.’
‘No possibility of PM Modi coming to Pakistan’
However, he said that I do not see the possibility of Prime Minister Modi coming to Islamabad. He claimed, ‘For the last decade, the policy of the Indian government has constantly put back any initiative towards normalizing relations with Pakistan. There is a possibility that Prime Minister Modi may send a ministerial level delegation to represent India, as the presence of heads of states is not necessary to attend the SCO meeting.’
In the past also, India has been represented by ministerial level teams in the SCO CHG meetings. It is noteworthy that last year Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari came to India for the SCO Foreign Ministers’ meeting.
