Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz Sharif on Saturday made a case for the two neighbours to work together as an economic bloc like the European Union.
She used Twitter to articulate this hope. “Why the two nations are living like divided Korea. Why can’t they live like United Europe. Economic bloc perhaps?” she tweeted in the last of three tweets floating the idea of burying differences and working for the betterment of the people of the two countries.
“Why can’t India and Pakistan team up to win the wars against diseases, illiteracy and poverty? We can…,” she said in her first tweet and then followed it up with: “Why India and Pakistan have to be prisoners of the past? Should bury the enmity & start afresh.”
The tweets drew her bouquets and brickbats from both sides of the border. In fact, for the better part of the day, Ms. Sharif kept herself engaged on Twitter on the issue, stating that dialogue and not force is the answer to the Kashmir issue. “Aggression breeds aggression,” she said in one tweet while also using the platform to clarify that she would not be accompanying her father to India.
Through this week, Ms. Sharif has been speaking in favour of an India-Pakistan engagement despite jihadi groups based in her party’s stronghold — Punjab — building pressure against Mr. Sharif accepting the invitation to the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi. And, on Friday, she tweeted: “I personally think cordial relations with new Indian govt. should be cultivated. Will help remove psychological barriers, fear & misgivings.”
