PM Imran Thanks Sidhu, Urges India For Dialogue

Islamabad (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 21st August, 2018) Prime Minister Imran Khan has thanked former Indian cricketer and his close friend Navjot Singh Sidhu for coming to Pakistan to attend his oath-taking ceremony.

In a tweet on Tuesday, Imran Khan wrote, “I want to thank Sidhu for coming to Pakistan for my oath taking. He was an ambassador of peace & was given amazing love & affection by ppl of Pakistan. Those in India who targeted him are doing a gt disservice to peace in the subcontinent - without peace our ppl cannot progress”

Urging India for dialogue, he said, “To move forward Pakistan and India must dialogue and resolve their conflicts incl Kashmir: The best way to alleviate poverty and uplift the people of the subcontinent is to resolve our differences through dialogue and start trading”

Former Indian cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu arrived in Lahore on Friday via the Wagah border from where he travelled to Islamabad to attend Imran Khan's oath-taking ceremony.

After getting mandatory clearance from the Ministry of External Affairs, Sidhu was overwhelmed to have received a call from External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

Before crossing over to Wagah, Sidhu expressed his feelings, “Hindustan jive te Pakistan jive, hasda wasda eh sara jahan jive........te aan baan shaan naal.....pyar aman te khushhali ban ke mera yaar Imran Khan jive.”

After meeting Prime Minister Imran Khan on Satuday, he said, “I had brought a message of peace from India. Today, I feel I am taking back 100 times the love I had brought here. The love I got from Pakistan was with compound interest, giving us infinite possibilities which can actually unify us.”

He went on to say, “I didn’t want to make any political statement. Today, when COAS Qamar Javed Bajwa came to me, he said we want peace.”

“You take one step, we will take two. That’s how it is,” he said, adding, “For how long will we swim in the red ocean. Let us swim in the blue ocean, let us shun red ocean,” he added.

He returned to India on Sunday through the Wagah Border as PTI's Senator Faisal Javed saw him off at Wagah.