Indian media misquoted foreign minister over letter by Modi: Pakistan

Pakistan's newly appointed foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Monday had claimed that the letter written by prime minister Narendra Modi to his counterpart Imran Khan called for talks between the two countries. However, his office soon after denied that the minister had made any such statements and said that the Indian media had misquoted him.

"Foreign Minister had not stated that `the Indian Prime Minister had made an offer of a dialogue', but had said that the Indian Prime Minister in his letter to Prime Minister, Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi, had also mentioned something similar to what the Foreign Minister elucidated earlier i.e. that the way forward was only through constructive engagement," the statement mentioned, as quoted by ANI.

"The Foreign Minister was also briefed about the same positivity and constructive environment prevailing during the meeting of the former Minister of Law and Information with the Indian External Affairs Minister during his visit to India on 18 August 2018 to attend the funeral of Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee," said Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Office spokesperson Mohammad Faisal in a statement, as quoted by ANI.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

"Pakistan looks forward to a mutually beneficial, uninterrupted dialogue with India to resolve all issues. Any attempts to instigate controversy and vitiate the environment are counter-productive and against the spirit of responsible journalism," the statement added.

However, on Monday, a video on Geo TV showed Qureshi saying: "Mujhe abhi Foreign Secretary ne muttala kiya ki Hindustan ke Wazir-e-Azam ka kal khat aaya, jis me unhone Imran Khan sahab ko mubarakbaad pesh ki hai. Unhone guft-o-shunid ke raaaste ke aaghaz ka paigam diya hai. (The Foreign secretary just informed me that we received a letter from the Prime Minister of India yesterday, in which he congratulated Imran Khan. He also gave a message of paving the path for a dialogue.)," he said.

Prime minister Narendra Modi wrote a letter to Pakistan PM Imran Khan on August 18 to congratulate him on becoming the newly appointed prime minister.

Modi stressed on constructive and meaningful engagement with Pakistan in the congratulatory letter he wrote to newly appoint PM Imran Khan.

In the letter, Modi posited that India is committed to peaceful neighborly ties with Pakistan and stressed the need to work for a terror-free South Asia.

Qureshi said on Monday that Kashmir remains an issue and it needed to be acknowledged. "We need uninterrupted dialogue with India and need to engage," he said.

"I want to tell the Indian foreign minister that we are not just neighbors, we are atomic powers. We have a lot of common resources," he said.