Want 'permanent peace' with India; war never an option to resolve Kashmir issue: Pak PM Sharif
Islamabad, Aug 21: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said that Pakistan wants to have "permanent peace" with India through dialogue as war is not an option for either of the countries to resolve the Kashmir issue, according to a media report on Saturday.
Speaking to a delegation of students from Harvard University, Sharif also said that sustainable peace in the region was linked to the resolution of the Kashmir issue as per the UN resolutions, The News International newspaper reported.
Pakistan resolves to maintain peace in the region, and that sustainable peace in the region was linked to the resolution of the Kashmir issue as per the UN resolutions, he said during the interaction on Friday evening.
We want permanent peace with India through dialogue as war is not an option for either of the countries, he was quoted as saying in the report.
Relations between India and Pakistan have often been strained over the Kashmir issue and cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan.
However, the ties between the two countries nosedived after India abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution, revoking the special status to Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcating the state into two Union Territories on August 5, 2019.
India's decision evoked strong reactions from Pakistan, which downgraded diplomatic ties and expelled the Indian envoy.
India has repeatedly told Pakistan that Jammu and Kashmir was, is and shall forever remain an integral part of the country.
India has said it desires normal neighbourly relations with Pakistan in an environment free of terror, hostility and violence.
During the interaction, Sharif pointed out that Islamabad and New Delhi should have competition in trade, economy and improving the conditions of their people.
He said Pakistan was not an aggressor, but its nuclear assets and the trained army are deterrence, he said, adding that Islamabad spends on its military to protect their frontiers and not for aggression.
In response to a question about Pakistan's economy and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme, the premier said that the country's economic crisis stem from structural problems along with political instability in the recent decades.
He said the first few decades since the inception of Pakistan witnessed impressive growth across all sectors of the economy when there were plans, national will and the implementation mechanism to produce outcomes.
Overtime, we lost the edge in sectors in which we were ahead. The lack of focus, energy and policy action led to reduction in national productivity, Sharif added.
Cash-starved Pakistan is facing growing economic challenges, with high inflation, sliding forex reserves, a widening current account deficit and a depreciating currency.
With the rising current account deficit at USD 13.2 billion in the first nine months and pressing external loan repayment requirements, Pakistan required financial assistance of USD 9-12 billion till June 2022 to avert further depletion of foreign currency reserves.
As Pakistan turned 75 on August 14, Sharif wrote an essay in The Economist magazine in which he stated that the country in its adolescence, in the 1960s, brimmed with hope and promise as it had a date with destiny.
He said the nation was widely thought ready to "become the next Asian tiger ". However, in 2022, Pakistan found itself mired in its latest economic crisis.
Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund's executive board will meet on August 29 and is expected to approve a bailout package for Pakistan, including the pending disbursement of about USD 1.18 billion.
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US SC rejects 26/11 attack accused Tahawwur Rana’s plea seeking stay on his extradition to India
New York, Apr 7 (PTI): The US Supreme Court has rejected 26/11 Mumbai terror attack accused Tahawwur Rana's appeal seeking a stay on his extradition to India, moving him closer to being handed over to Indian authorities to face justice.
Rana, 64, a Canadian national of Pakistani origin, is currently lodged at a metropolitan detention centre in Los Angeles.
He is known to be associated with Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, one of the main conspirators of the 26/11 attacks. Headley conducted a recce of Mumbai before the attacks by posing as an employee of Rana’s immigration consultancy.
Rana had submitted an ‘Emergency Application For Stay Pending Litigation of Petition For Writ of Habeas Corpus' on February 27, 2025, with Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and Circuit Justice for the Ninth Circuit Elena Kagan.
Kagan had denied the application earlier last month.
Rana had then renewed his ‘Emergency Application for Stay Pending Litigation of Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus previously addressed to Justice Kagan’, and requested that the renewed application be directed to US Chief Justice John Roberts.
An order on the Supreme Court website noted that Rana's renewed application had been “distributed for Conference” on April 4 and the “application” has been “referred to the Court.”
A notice on the Supreme Court website Monday said that “Application denied by the Court.”
Rana was convicted in the US of one count of conspiracy to provide material support to the terrorist plot in Denmark and one count of providing material support to Pakistan-based terrorist organisation Lashker-e-Taiba which was responsible for the attacks in Mumbai.
New York-based Indian-American attorney Ravi Batra had told PTI that Rana had made his application to the Supreme Court to prevent extradition, which Justice Kagan denied on March 6. The application was then submitted before Roberts, “who has shared it with the Court to conference so as to harness the entire Court’s view.”
The Supreme Court justices are Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Elena Kagan, Associate Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, Associate Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, and Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
In his emergency application, Rana had sought a stay of his extradition and surrender to India pending litigation (including exhaustion of all appeals) on the merits of his February 13.
In that petition, Rana argued that his extradition to India violates US law and the UN Convention Against Torture "because there are substantial grounds for believing that, if extradited to India, the petitioner will be in danger of being subjected to torture."
"The likelihood of torture in this case is even higher though as petitioner faces acute risk as a Muslim of Pakistani origin charged in the Mumbai attacks,” the application said.
The application also said that his “severe medical conditions” render extradition to Indian detention facilities a “de facto" death sentence in this case.
The US Supreme Court denied Rana's petition for a writ of certiorari relating to his original habeas petition on January 21. The application notes that on that same day, newly-confirmed Secretary of State Marco Rubio had met with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Washington on February 12 to meet with Trump, Rana’s counsel received a letter from the Department of State, stating that “on February 11, 2025, the Secretary of State decided to authorise” Rana’s "surrender to India,” pursuant to the “Extradition Treaty between the United States and India”.
Rana’s Counsel requested from the State Department the complete administrative record on which Secretary Rubio based his decision to authorize Rana’s surrender to India.
The Counsel also requested immediate information of any commitment the United States has obtained from India with respect to Rana’s treatment. “The government declined to provide any information in response to these requests,” the application said.
It added that given Rana’s underlying health conditions and the State Department’s findings regarding the treatment of prisoners, it is very likely “Rana will not survive long enough to be tried in India".
During a joint press conference with Prime Minister Modi in the White House in February, President Donald Trump announced that his administration has approved the extradition of "very evil" Rana, wanted by Indian law enforcement agencies for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, "to face justice in India”.
A total of 166 people, including six Americans, were killed in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks in which 10 Pakistani terrorists laid a more than 60-hour siege, attacking and killing people at iconic and vital locations in Mumbai.
