Want to settle all issues with India: Sharif

NEW DELHI: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday hit back at his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, saying poverty cannot be eradicated by “driving tanks

NEW DELHI: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday hit back at his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, saying poverty cannot be eradicated by “driving tanks on farmlands” and needled India again by calling Hizbul militant Burhan Wani a “son of the Kashmiri soil”.

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Responding to Modi’ s speech last month challenging Pakistan to a contest over eradicating poverty and other social ills, Sharif said, “If they (Indian leaders) want us to fight them to end poverty, then they should realise that poverty cannot be eradicated by driving tanks on farmlands.”

Sharif, while addressing a joint session of the Parliament convened to discuss the security situation in the wake of increasing India-Pakistan tensions, accused India of running away from dialogue and instead creating a war-like environment by blaming Pakistan for the Uri terror attack in which 19 Indian soldiers were killed last month.

“We have done everything to make India come to the dialogue table, but India did not let it happen.Our efforts were thwarted over and over again,” Sharif claimed. “Pakistan is against war and wants durable peace. We are ready to settle all issues including Kashmir, through serious result-oriented talks,” he said, speaking in Urdu.

“Without any investigation (into Uri incident), within a few hours, India blamed Pakistan for the attack,” he said.

Meanwhile, India said Sharif ’s comments describing Wani as the “son of the Kashmiri soil” shows that country’s attachment to terrorism.