NEW DELHI, April 28: Steel tycoon Naveen Jindal’s brother Sajjan Jindal “secretly” met with Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Shariff on Wednesday, reported Pakistani media, adding that in meeting at Murree, the Indian violated the terms of his Pakistani visa.
The meeting, which set off speculation in the neighbouring country’s media that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was using “back channels” to arrange talks with Pakistan, is now under a bigger and darker cloud over the visa issue.Jindal is chairman and managing director of JSW steel.
Pakistani media speculated further that the meeting “was part of back-channel diplomacy to arrange a meeting between the Pakistani and Indian prime ministers on the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit” to be held in June in Astana, Kazakhstan, as The Express Tribune wrote.
Pakistan’s Samaa TV, which said it accessed Jindal’s travel documents, revealed that the Modi aide was exempt from police repotring in Lahore. Not just that, he then violated his visa to meet the Pakistani PM at his residence in the hill town of Murree.
“The Indian steel magnate headed straight to Murree upon arrival in Pakistan even though his visa did not specify that he could travel to the hill station… Jindal’s visa, bearing the number 769903, issued on April 25, 2017 allowed the holder to visit only Islamabad and Lahore,” wrote another Pakistani newspaper, The Express Tribune.
At first Thursday this week, Pakistan’s foreign office spokesman claimed his office was unaware about any such meeting. Later, as almost everyone got wind of it, Sharif’s daughter confirmed the meeting between “old friends” Jindal and her father, but said nothing about where it was held.
