No chance of good ties with India under BJP.

ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan seeks a good relationship with neighbouring India but says there is "no chance" of this happening while the nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) remains in power in Delhi.

Mr Khan enthused to The Telegraph about the potential economic benefits that establishing trade between the two arch geopolitical rivals would bring but said these would never be realised until Delhi changes its stance on the disputed region of Indian-administered Kashmir.

"The benefits would be enormous. But, we are stuck on this issue and we need a strong roadmap to resolve it. I think it's possible but the BJP government is so hardline, they have a nationalistic stance on issues," said Mr Khan. "It is frustrating as you have no chance [for a resolution] as they whip up these nationalistic feelings. And, once this genie of nationalism is out of the bottle it is very difficult to put it back in again."In 2019, the BJP, which adheres to a Hindu nationalist ideology, controversially scrapped the autonomous status that Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir had enjoyed since independence, bringing it under central control.

Over 70 years ago, the United Nations Security Council called on India and Pakistan to hold plebiscites in their respective parts of Jammu and Kashmir to give residents the choice of which country to join. Islamabad says Delhi has ignored its requests to hold a poll. "All we know is that they should have a roadmap for the solution of Kashmir. People in Pakistan cannot accept that Kashmiris, who were given their right by the international community to choose their destiny through a plebiscite, have...