Pakistan needs to manage tense ties with India: Javed Jabbar

Pakistan-India Track-II process member says both nations have multi-layered complexities

ISLAMABAD: Two immediate neighbours - Pakistan and India - with inherently contrasting, often conflicting personas will continue to face dynamic tension, said former senator Javed Jabbar on Wednesday.

“Regional and global geopolitical factors, especially the role of China and the US, will likely have greater impact on Pakistan-India relationship,” he said at the Guest Lecture series of the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI).

For the near term future, Pakistan will have to learn to manage its tense relationship with India without war, violent conflict, subversion, hate and follow a course towards improved unconditional dialogue, trade, travel, connectivity, and cooperation, said Jabbar, a prominent writer, filmmaker, policy analyst, and former federal minister.

Jabbar, who has been associated with peace and conflict resolution initiatives between Pakistan and India as a member of the longest-running Pakistan-India Track-II process known as the Neemrana Dialogue, observed that the Pakistan-India is "possibly the most complex bilateral relationship of any two nation-states."

There are no two other nations in the entire world with such multi-layered complexities as found between India and Pakistan.”

Outlining how the people have a long history together, he said that there are also great differences among them which are now being manipulated and driven by a hysterical Indian media.

He censured the absolute insanity of the Indian news channels in fanning the flames of mistrust and hatred between the neighbours.

The lecture, entitled “Evolving Nature of Inter-State Relations between Pakistan and India” covered a range of topics including the meeting of Prime Minister Imran Khan with US President Donald Trump, impact and often nefarious use of media by India, and the future state of relations between Pakistan and India.

The conversation was moderated by IPRI President Ambassador (Retd) Khan Hasham bin Saddique.

Giving his views about the recent LokSabha elections, Senator Jabbarhoped said that the 64 per cent of Indian voters who voted against the BJP/alliance in 2019 would move the Indian polity towards more rationale policies which are beneficial for the region and Pakistan-India relations.

“While Pakistan needs to do plenty itself through internal reform and rejuvenation, we have made enough peace gestures, we must now wait for India to realize that the longer it waits, the stronger will be the empathy towards Pakistan,” he stressed.  

Published in The Express Tribune, July 25^th, 2019.