'Rebuffed' Imran Khan vows to hold peace talks with India after 2019 Lok Sabha elections

A day after India lashed out at Imran Khan for his tweet on Kashmir, the Pakistani Prime Minister on Tuesday said he would once again extend a hand of friendship to New Delhi after the 2019 general elections. Imran Khan believes India had earlier “rebuffed” his offer of talks because Pakistan is an issue in the elections in the neighbouring country.

Reacting sharply to Khan's remarks, India on Monday said instead of making comments on internal affairs of another country, Islamabad should take "credible action" to dismantle terror infrastructure operating from its soil.    

Referring to incidents of violence in Kashmir, Khan, in a tweet, said that time has come for India to realise that it must move to resolve the Kashmir dispute through dialogue in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people.   

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"Strongly condemn the new cycle of killings of innocent Kashmiris....by Indian security forces," Khan had tweeted. 

On Tuesday, Khan was speaking at the high-profile Future Investment Initiative forum in Riyadh where he said Pakistan wants "peace with all our neighbours particularly India and Afghanistan for regional peace and stability."

"Peace with India would help the two countries to divert their resources towards human development instead of indulging in arms race," Khan was quoted as saying by state-run Radio Pakistan.Khan registered a landslide victory in the August.

After assuming power, he wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi suggesting a meeting between the two countries' foreign ministers on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September.

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Within hours of accepting the offer, India turned it down following the killings of three policemen in Jammu and Kashmir.

"He (Khan) attributed this (cancellation) to anti-Pakistan rhetoric raking in votes in India," the Express Tribune newspaper reported, citing the prime minister.

Pakistan is desperately seeking funds from “friendly” countries, including Saudi Arabia. Interestingly, the forum was boycotted by leading policy-makers and corporate chiefs in response to the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.