No foreign leaders will be invited for Imran Khan's oath: PTI

Imran Khan will take oath in a simple ceremony at President House.

A top leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) said on Thursday that no foreign leaders will be invited for Prime Minister-designate Imran Khan's swearing-in ceremony.
"It has been decided that no foreign personalities will be invited to the ceremony - it will be a completely national event. Only a few close friends of Imran Khan will be invited. There will be no show of extravagance," PTI spokesperson said.
On Wednesday, Chaudhry said that Bollywood star Aamir Khan and cricketers Kapil Dev, Navjot Singh Sidhu and Sunil Gavaskar have already been invited by the party for the event.
Imran Khan will take oath in a simple ceremony at President House, he added.
Only Punjab Cabinet Minister Sidhu has accepted his invite so far. Sidhu said that he has accepted the invitation extended by Imran Khan for attending his swearing-in ceremony as the Prime Minister of Pakistan.
PTI's senior leaders Shireen Mazari and Shafqat Mahmood met Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua and wished to know which foreign leaders it would be possible to invite for the event given the short period of time before the ceremony takes place, DawnNews reported quoting sources privy to the meetings.
The sources said that the PTI leaders wished to invite the heads of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) member states - including Prime Minister Modi - as well as leaders of China and Turkey, the report said.
On Monday, Prime Minister Modi telephoned Khan to congratulate him on his party's victory in the general elections and hoped that "Pakistan and India will work to open a new chapter in bilateral ties".
Khan thanked Modi for his wishes and emphasised that disputes should be resolved through dialogue.

The PTI, led by 65-year-old Khan, has emerged as the single largest party in the National Assembly after the July 25 elections and it is likely to form the government with the support of its allies and independents.

The then prime minister Nawaz Sharif had travelled to New Delhi to attend Modi's oath taking ceremony in 2014 and the Indian premier had in December 2015 made a brief stopover in Lahore to greet his counterpart on his birthday.

The India-Pakistan ties nose-dived in recent years with no bilateral talks taking place.

The ties between the two countries had strained after the terror attacks by Pakistan-based groups in 2016 and India's surgical strikes inside Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The sentencing of alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav to death by a military court in April last year further deteriorated bilateral ties.

The two sides often accuse each other of ceasefire violations along the Line of Control, resulting in civilian casualties.

In his victory speech, Khan had said that better relations between Pakistan and India would be "good for all of us".
(With inputs from PTI)

• Pakistan