New Delhi: Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has invited some prominent former Indian cricketers to his oath-taking ceremony as premier on August 11, party spokesperson Fawad Chaudhry said on Wednesday.
Speaking to the media outside Pakistan's Supreme Court, Chaudhry said that former cricketers Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, and Navjot Singh Sidhu have been invited, along with Bollywood actor Aamir Khan.
The PTI, led by 65-year-old Khan, has emerged as the single largest party in the National Assembly after the July 25 elections, but it is still short of numbers to form the government on its own. Khan on Monday said that he would take oath as prime minister on August 11.
A party official had earlier also said that PTI is also considering inviting the leaders of SAARC countries, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to his oath taking ceremony. But an invite has not been extended so far.
Chaudhry had on Tuesday said on Twitter that they would take the decision on whether foreign dignitaries will be invited after consulting with the Pakistan Foreign Office.
"Media speculations about international dignitaries attending PM oath ceremony are not correct. We have sought the advice of Foreign Office on the matter and will decide accordingly #PTI," he had tweeted.
Modi on Monday 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. "Wars and bloodshed instead of resolving disputes lead to tragedies," Khan had said.
Khan in his victory speech had also said that better relations between Pakistan and India would be "good for all of us".
The relations between India and Pakistan remained tense since 2014. Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had travelled to Delhi to attend Modi's oath taking ceremony and the Indian premier had in December 2015 made a 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.
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