INDIA-PAKISTAN : RECENT INTIATIVES

A year ago, in mid-July 2010, when External Affairs Minister S M Krishna embarked on a ‘peace mission’ to the neighbouring country, there was also hope in the air as the special IAF aircraft landed at the Chaklala Air Base in Rawalpindi. Both sides had invested a lot into efforts to resume the dialogue process, stalled in the wake of the 26/11 Mumbai attack. However, a belligerent Shah Mehmood Qureshi, the then Foreign Minister of Pakistan, played the spoilsport and what was expected to be a breakthrough meeting ended on an acrimonious note. Even Pakistanis blame Qureshi for the fiasco of last July and are all praise for Krishna for showing maturity in the face of grave provocation and belligerent statements by his Pakistani opposite number.
Eleven months later, vibes were quite positive as the two foreign secretaries shook hands and posed for photographers before the talks at the Foreign Office. On the first day, they took up the issue of peace and security, including confidence building measures (CBMs). Officials privy to the talks said the atmosphere was quite relaxed since both Rao and Bashir have known each other from the days when they were the envoys of their respective countries in China some years back. One official, who has participated in several India-Pakistan meetings, said he had never in his career seen such bonhomie at any interaction between the two countries.


Sharp differences between India and Pakistan, especially over terrorism and Jammu and Kashmir, prevented the two countries from normalising relations in the past. India and Pakistan did make some headway in forging peaceful relations in the last one decade. The Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus linking the two parts of Kashmir was one such Confidence Building Measure (CBM) that promised a thaw but the progress was stalled by the 26/11 attack on Mumbai by Pakistan-trained terrorists in 2008. After painstaking efforts and the political wisdom displayed by the Indian Prime Minister, both sides decided to return to the table in February this year on the margins of the SAARC Council of Ministers’ meeting at Thimphu in Bhutan.
It is an irony that while China and India have pushed ahead with trade and commerce, despite their territorial disputes and China’s support of Pakistan, India and Pakistan have failed to make much headway in resolving differences over even Siachen and Sir Creek, for example, and in promoting friendly exchanges and people-to-people contacts.

Differences

A fresh beginning, however, was made this year and the two countries have already held talks on issues like terrorism and drug trafficking, promotion of economic relations, Siachen and river water sharing.
The just-concluded talks between the two foreign secretaries in Islamabad dealt with CBMs, Jammu and Kashmir and promotion of friendly exchanges. Just a day before Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani visited Mohali as the Indian Prime Minister’s guest to witness the World Cup cricket semi-final between India and Pakistan, the home/interior secretaries of India and Pakistan met in the Indian capital towards the end of March. However, nothing productive came out of it with India complaining to Pakistan about the glacial progress in the trial of the 26/11 accused.
India also handed over to Pakistan a list of its 50 ‘most wanted’ terrorists, seeking their extradition to face trial here for the heinous crimes committed by them on Indian soil. Pakistan, as usual, stated that it was committed to bringing to justice the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks but pleaded that it could not interfere with court proceedings. Similarly, the defence secretaries of India and Pakistan also failed to achieve a breakthrough in their two-day talks on Siachen last month, even though both sides agreed to persist with meaningful and result-oriented discussions. While India wants Pakistan to authenticate actual ground position line (AGPL) both on the maps and on the ground, Islamabad insists on maintaining the pre-1972 troop position, as per the Simla Agreement. Pakistan has also been asking for demilitarisation of the Siachen glacier and raised the issue of climate change there due to the presence of troops from both sides and its effects on the environment.
Water has also emerged as a major issue between the two countries in recent years. Pakistan has been spreading a false propaganda that India has been denying it its due share of water by building dams over rivers flowing between the two countries. In fact, Jamat-ud-Dawaa (JuD) chief Hafiz Mohammed Sayeed, the key plotter of the 26/11 attacks, has been in the forefront of the campaign in Pakistan against India over the water issue.
India’s contention is that it is abiding strictly by the provisions of the Indus Water Treaty between the two countries and has not made any attempt to deny Pakistan its due share of water. The meeting on Sir Creek issue last month also was a ritual with representatives of India and Pakistan exchanging ‘non-papers’ and agreeing to meet again.
Considered among the most “doable” of the contentious issues between the two countries, the two countries have in the past discussed the delimitation of the maritime boundary as well as the delineation of the boundary in Sir Creek in the light of the results of a joint survey. Maps and charts, which showed respective positions on the twin issues, had been exchanged. Having triggered the India-Pakistan War of 1965, the disputed marshland, which separates Pakistan’s Sindh province from Gujarat on the Indian side, has been the bane of the fishermen of both countries as they are often caught straying into contested waters, ending up in long prison stints that are further stretched if there is a freeze in bilateral relations.

CBMs

Fortunately there is a growing consensus in the two countries for relaxing the visa regime between them, open more cross-LoC trade routes, release each other’s prisoners, increase transport links and exchange visits between artistes, writers and intellectuals. There is realisation that there can’t be a bigger CBM between the two countries than promoting people-to-people contacts. India cannot achieve its objective of becoming a global power until it is at peace with Pakistan. Similarly, Islamabad should no longer believe that promoting terrorism against India will destabilise its neighbour. The monster of terrorism, which Pakistan created, is now threatening its own existence.
The peace process looks on track as of now. Opinion makers and strategic thinkers in Pakistan too appear optimistic about it. Imtiaz Gul, political analyst and author of ‘The Most Dangerous Place: Pakistan’s Lawless Frontier’ also expected the two-day talks between the two foreign secretaries to help resolve some of the issues. India, he said, should also state its commitment to the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline which could then silence the military leadership, which is paranoid about India. Since Pakistan is embroiled in its own internal conflicts, India should help it by considering ‘out of box’ ideas, he felt.