“There are no permanent enemies... we need to resolve things with India,” Mian Muhammad Mansha, chairman of the Karachi-based Nishat Group, said

The governments of India and Pakistan have a long history of using businessmen to facilitate back-channel contacts.

An influential Pakistani billionaire has contended that India and Pakistan are still engaged in back-channel contacts that could eventually pave the way for a prime ministerial visit from the Indian side.

Mian Muhammad Mansha, chairman of the Karachi-based Nishat Group, told a gathering of businessmen at the Lahore Chambers of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday that there are no “permanent enemies” and India and Pakistan could both benefit from improving relations.

“I know, even now, talks are going on with India at the back end [sic]. In a month [Indian Prime Minister Narendra] Modi will come here if we can get our act together. These talks are going on even now and I know this,” Mansha said, speaking in a mix of English and Urdu.

“We need peace. They have technology, and we have some things we can give them,” he is heard saying in a video of the event.

Mansha didn’t give details of the back-channel contacts he referred to. There was no immediate response from Indian officials to his remarks.

After months of back-channel contacts between Indian and Pakistani security officials that were never publicly acknowledged, the two countries revived the 2003 ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir in February 2021. Officials of the United Arab Emirates have acknowledged that their country played a role in facilitating these contacts.

However, ties between the two sides are at an all-time low because of a series of terror attacks on Indian security forces that were blamed on Pakistan-based terror groups and there have been no reports of back-channel contacts in the recent past.

Mansha, whose conglomerate has interests in textiles, cement, power and banking and annual revenues of more than $2 billion, said several times during the interaction that the backchannel contacts were continuing even now.

“There are no permanent enemies... we need to resolve things with India,” he said, pointing out that till the 1965 war between the two countries, 50% to 60% of Pakistan’s total trade was with India. Trade between the two sides will also help them tackle pressing problems such as poverty, he said.

“If the economy does not improve, [Pakistan] may face disastrous consequences. Pakistan should improve trade relations with India and take a regional approach to economic development. Europe fought two great wars, but ultimately settled for peace and regional development. There is no permanent enmity,” he added.

The governments of India and Pakistan have a long history of using businessmen to facilitate back-channel contacts.

India has maintained in recent years that Pakistan should create conditions conducive to dialogue by cracking down on individuals and groups responsible for cross-border terrorism. Pakistan has been saying that the two sides should move forward in diverse areas even as steps are taken to address the issue of terrorism.

Trade relations between India and Pakistan have been suspended since August 2019, when the Indian government scrapped the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. At the time, the Pakistani side also downgraded diplomatic ties, though there has been talk in recent months that both countries could again post new high commissioners in each other’s capitals.