Nobody knows who runs Pak, says Modi

New Delhi, May 4 (IANS): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that the biggest problem for India in its relations with Pakistan is to find “who is running the country” and should be engaged for talks. In an interview to India TV’s Chairman and Editor-in-Chief Rajat Sharma, he said that he had made friendly gestures to both Prime Ministers Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan but these were not reciprocated. Describing his sudden visit to Pakistan in 2015 while returning from Afghanistan, he said that his visit was intended to send a message that India does “not bear any ill-will towards Pakistan”. Modi said that when Imran Khan became PM, they talked over phone. Both of us as Prime Ministers should work towards eradication of poverty in the next five years,” he said. However, then came incidents like Pulwama. “The biggest problem with Pakistan is that nobody knows who is running the country and whom we should talk to,” he said, adding that his experience with Pakistan was not isolated but leaders from the US, China, Russia, the Gulf and Arab countries share the same views.