Mohammad
Jamil
Whereas Pakistan has always been keen to
resolve all outstanding disputes with India through dialogue, it was always
India that either baulked at dialogue or stalled ongoing dialogue on one
pretext or another. Since 2004, India and Pakistan had many rounds of talks
under composite dialogue, but after Mumbai attacks it was India that ended the
talks. There are indeed terrorists outfits in India and Pakistan, but to accuse
Pakistan of every terror act in India has become more of a norm with Indian
government. In August 2014, India called off talks with Pakistan on the pretext
that Pakistan’s High Commissioner met with Kashmiri leaders ahead of Foreign
Secretary-level talks. The controversy on the part of Indian media is a
deliberate attempt to discredit Pakistan leadership’s sincere efforts to remind
the international community of their responsibilities on resolution of Kashmir
issue.
Indian media tried to mislead the
public by creating an impression that PM Nawaz Sharif by highlighting Kashmir
Issue made an effort to improve relations with Military establishment in the
backdrop of PTI and PAT activities. Nawaz Sharif himself was wary of Indian
intransigence of cancellation of secretary-level talks because he was ardent
supporter of improving relations with India. He attended the oath-taking
ceremony of Narendra Modi despite opposition from different strata of society.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during his address at the 69th session of the
United Nations General Assembly had rightly raised the Kashmir issue, and
blamed India for another missed opportunity to address outstanding issues by
cancelling the foreign secretaries’ talks in August 2014.
His speech was appreciated in Pakistan
and Kashmir as well, which was true reflection of sentiments of the people of
Pakistan, who believed that peace between India and Pakistan and prosperity in
south Asia hinges on the resolution of core issue. Pakistan’s attempt to
sensitize the international community on unresolved state of Kashmir issue at
UNGA seems to have irked Indian political circles in general and diplomatic and
journalist communities in particular. Under the growing frustration, a
controversial journalist affiliated with NDTV namely Barkha Dutt engaged PM’s
special advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz and managed to create a
controversy. PM’s advisor Sartaj Aziz believed that meeting with the Kashmiris
leaders was perfectly right, but she made him concede that Pakistani High
Commissioner’s meeting with Kashmiri leadership was ill-timed and affected
Secretary level engagements. It is unfortunate that Sartaj Aziz, a former very
senior bureaucrat, and having decades of experience in foreign affairs, could
give such a statement in an interview, which is being used by India as
admittance by the Pakistani official that due to ill-timed meeting with
Kashmiri leader by High Commissioner in Delhi, India was justified to cancel
Secretary-level talks. Barkha Dutt, Group Editor at NDTV, while trying to
create controversy to discredit Pakistan, also hinted that Kashmir issue is
Achilles heel of Indian diplomacy. India is now blaming Pakistan for
cancellation of Secretary level talks. Indian hypocrisy is quite evident that
on the pretext of meeting with a Kashmiri leader, they cancelled the engagement
with Pakistan.
India played a ignominious role in IOK
from purported accession of Kashmiri Maharaja to neutralization of Sheikh
Abdullah by Nehru followed by increasing Army deployment in Kashmir, and has
committed atrocities against men, women and children of freedom-loving Kashmiri
nation. Indian heinous acts in IOK are narrated and confirmed by an ex-RAW
official RK Yadu in his book “Mission R&AW”. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
has the desire to have friendly relations with India, and he has been ardent
believer that both countries can resolve their disputes through dialogue. But
his desire was misperceived as if he was willing to forget about Kashmir or
place it on the back burner for the time being. In fact, Indian leadership had
not expected that Nawaz Sharif would expose India in highest world forum. In
September 2013, in his address to the UNGA, Nawaz Sharif appeared to have been
influenced or misled by the euphoria created by architects of aman ki asha, who
had been raising false hopes that trade between India and Pakistan would
provide an enabling environment to help resolve the disputes between India and
Pakistan. They wanted that Pakistan should give India the status of the Most
Favored Nation to allow transit trade to Afghanistan and Central Asian
Republics. Had he done it, Pakistan would have lost all the leverage to force
India to resolve the disputes between the two countries. In his 26th September
2014 address to UNGA, Nawaz Sharif rejected that flawed concept and approach of
appeasing the military, and his speech was reflective of aspirations of the
people of Pakistan, and of course the people of Jammu and Kashmir. Some
analysts say that somebody advised him to take this stance; and it could be
foreign office.
Whatever the case, Nawaz Sharif
improved his image by his emphatic call for resolution of Jammu and Kashmir
conflict as imperative for peace, security and economic uplift of South Asians.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s decision to raise the Kashmir issue in the UN
General Assembly indicated a realization in Islamabad that relations with India
could only improve if New Delhi also shows willingness to do so. Foreign
Secretary Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry talking to Pakistani media at a briefing outside
the United Nations said: “If Indians are interested in a meeting, they should
approach us now”. Such approach is emblematic of change in Pakistan’s previous
policy of almost begging for resumption of talks.
Before the UNGA’s meeting, India had
indicated that talks will only resume if Pakistan agrees not to raise the
Kashmir issue at international forums like the UN. Since the dialogue was
stalled after Mumbai attacks, Pakistan has been fervently trying to start the
dialogue. But instead of responding positively India continued with its
intransigence and insisted that first the mastermind of the attack should be
tried and executed, evidence or no evidence. However, no progress could be made
in the talks, and India is treading the same beaten track and is not willing to
budge an inch from its stance that Kashmir is integral part of India. Anyhow,
the principled stand taken by Prime Minister in UNGA is appreciable.
المشاركات
0 التعليقات:
إرسال تعليق