Industrialist Sajjan Jindal is the chairman and managing director of the JSW Group.
Amid strained ties between India and Pakistan, industrialist Sajjan Jindal met Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday, which has led to speculation about the possibility of the two countries reviving bilateral talks.
Mr Jindal, the brother of former Congress lawmaker Naveen Jindal, is rumoured to have arranged Prime Minister Narendra Modi's surprise visit to Lahore in 2015 to meet Mr Sharif on the occasion of his birthday and the wedding of his granddaughter. He was also said to have a role in organising their talks during a SAARC meeting in Nepal in 2014.
Mr Jindal met Mr Sharif at the Pakistan PM's private residence in Murree, which is nearly 45 km from Islamabad. The steel magnate arrived at the Islamabad airport from Afghanistan, and was received by the Sharif family. He was then escorted to Murree and held an hour-long conversation with Nawaz Sharif.
Opposition parties in Pakistan, however, have objected to the meeting.
A resolution was submitted in Pakistan's Punjab assembly by an opposition leader Mian Mahmoodur Rashid.
"The people of Pakistan should be told as why the premier kept his meeting with Jindal secret," the resolution said.
The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, led by cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, alleged that Mr Jindal "conveyed the message of India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Sharif" over the controversial death sentence of Kulbhushan Jadhav, a former Indian navy man arrested last year.
"Nawaz Sharif will have to tell the people as why he felt the need to hold a secret meeting with an Indian businessman," said Fawad Chaudhry, spokesperson of the party.
Reacting to the criticism, Mr Sharif's daughter Maryam said that there was nothing "secret" about the meeting. Sajjan Jindal is the chairman and managing director of the JSW Group, which operates the flagship JSW Steel.
(with inputs from PTI)