On 18th August 2018, Pakistan appointed its 22nd Prime Minister, Imran Khan. With his tenure, also began a set of speculations- what would the appointment mean for the crumbling Indo-Pak ties? The two countries share a complicated past, no doubt. Bilateral talks have been close to negligible in the past few years, with each side blaming the other for the stagnancy.
Now, with a new Prime Minister in the picture for Pakistan, will things change? If yes, for the better or worse? Well, we will have to understand the relationship between India and Pakistan better to answer.
India-Pakistan relationship in the past
Although 15th August 1947 is largely remembered and celebrated for the day India got its freedom, it attributes to another key event- the partition. That was perhaps the first strain in the relationship these two countries share, with the partition turning brutally bloody for both sides.
India and Pakistan have witnessed multiple turfs since then- some major, other smaller but destructive. Kargil war, Indo-Pakistan war of 1965, 1971 etc are a few examples. The prime reason for the two nations turning a sour side remains the much-disputed territory of Kashmir. Summits like the Shimla summit, Lahore summit, Agra summit have tried to smoothen out the strains, but the situation more or less goes back to hostility and suspicion.
In November 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a brief visit to Pakistan, the first Indian PM to do that since 2004. However, no significant improvements were observed, and the matters became worse after the 2016 Uri attacks.
