A dialogue of sterility
Pakistan has kept its proverbial cool throughout and must continue to do so
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Indian Prime Minister Narendar Modi. PHOTO: AFP
The New Year has commenced with a depressingly familiar exchange between Pakistan and India, and if this is to set the tone for 2017 then the year is going to be no better than 2016 – and 2016 was something of an all-time low in bilateral relations. The convoluted language of diplomacy has the Pakistan Foreign Office saying that New Delhi is ‘deploying’ terrorism as an instrument of state policy under the cloak of denouncing terrorism. The FO spokesman added that India was involved in the perpetration, sponsorship, support and financing of terrorism in Pakistan, citing the case of Kulbhushan Yadav as a recent example thereof. Pakistan lambasted India for its sponsorship of terrorism in Pakistan, and claimed that Indian claims of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism within India were no more than a smokescreen for Indian human rights violations in Held Kashmir.
This thicket of diplo-speak was prompted by the an Indian proposal to the UN Security Council that the name of Maulana Masood Azhar be added to the Security Council blacklist of groups linked to al-Qaeda. The Sanctions Committee rejected the Indian proposal, to which the FO response was that India had attempted to politicise and undermine the work of the SC and that further evidence of Indian duplicity would be tabled by the Pakistan ambassador to the UN, Dr Maleeha Lodhi.
All the indications are that 2017 is going to be business as per usual, with 2016 as the template. Whilst it is true that the Line of Control (LoC) has cooled since the appointment of the new Chief of Army Staff (COAS) nothing has changed by way of operant diplomatic positions. They remain as entrenched and as dogmatic as ever. Premier Modi still enjoys a large majority of support nationally among both rich and poor despite having (further) impoverished millions with his currency reforms, and continues to burble nationalist rhetoric almost daily. Pakistan has kept its proverbial cool throughout and must continue to do so. We gain nothing by stooping to a similar level. Until both sides agree to go off-script then sadly we can expect more of the dialogue of sterility.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 3rd, 2017.
This thicket of diplo-speak was prompted by the an Indian proposal to the UN Security Council that the name of Maulana Masood Azhar be added to the Security Council blacklist of groups linked to al-Qaeda. The Sanctions Committee rejected the Indian proposal, to which the FO response was that India had attempted to politicise and undermine the work of the SC and that further evidence of Indian duplicity would be tabled by the Pakistan ambassador to the UN, Dr Maleeha Lodhi.
All the indications are that 2017 is going to be business as per usual, with 2016 as the template. Whilst it is true that the Line of Control (LoC) has cooled since the appointment of the new Chief of Army Staff (COAS) nothing has changed by way of operant diplomatic positions. They remain as entrenched and as dogmatic as ever. Premier Modi still enjoys a large majority of support nationally among both rich and poor despite having (further) impoverished millions with his currency reforms, and continues to burble nationalist rhetoric almost daily. Pakistan has kept its proverbial cool throughout and must continue to do so. We gain nothing by stooping to a similar level. Until both sides agree to go off-script then sadly we can expect more of the dialogue of sterility.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 3rd, 2017.