What’s wrong with India and Pakistan!

The history of the Indo-Pak ties is chequered with breakups and new beginnings


Dr Moonis Ahmar April 25, 2021
The writer is Meritorious Professor International Relations and former Dean Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Karachi. Email: amoonis@hotmail.com

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When the UAE’s ambassador to Washington, in a virtual discussion with Stanford University’s Hoover Institution on April 14, took the credit of “bringing Kashmir escalation down and creating a ceasefire”, it reflected a shift in India’s policy on mediation. While India is silent on the claim, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, at a press conference in Dubai on April 18, ruled out ‘backchannel negotiations’ with India. However, he did admit that intelligence level talks were held between the two countries on contentious issues.

It’s not for the first time that after a long stand-off India and Pakistan have agreed to normalise relations through secret negotiations. The history of the Indo-Pak ties is chequered with breakups and new beginnings, and stuff like that. In the distant past, when the nuclear tests – conducted by India and Pakistan in May 1998 – jeopardised their ties, a track II dialogue involving non-officials with the support of their respective governments led to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee visiting to Lahore in February 1999. The attack on the Indian Parliament on December 13, 2001 resulted in a prolonged stand-off, with one million forces from the two countries locked in an eyeball-to-eyeball contact on their mutual border. India banned its airspace for Pakistani planes; cut off road, rail and air links; and downgraded diplomatic relations with the country. But the breakthroughs that followed – like India and Pakistan agreeing to normalise relations and cease fire along the line of control; and Vajpayee visiting Islamabad to participate in SAARC summit in January 2004 – were the result of backchannel negotiations in Bangkok and elsewhere.

The current stand-off between India and Pakistan after the Uri attack in occupied Kashmir in September 2016 is the longest thus far, as it also include the Balakot and Pulwama incidents of February 2019 and annexation of Jammu & Kashmir in the Indian Union on August 5, 2019 under Jammu & Kashmir Reorganization Act. After the Uri attack, India suspended the composite dialogue with Pakistan and along with Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Bhutan boycotted 19th SAARC summit which was to be held in Islamabad in November 2016. Following the illegal absorption of occupied Kashmir in the Indian Union, Pakistan downgraded its diplomatic relations with India and suspended trade and travel ties with its eastern neighbour. Now, almost two years after the illegal August 5, 2019 annexation, there is rethinking on the part of Pakistan and India to resume the process of dialogue. Pakistan decided to import sugar and cotton from India a month ago, but when critics raised a hue and cry against the decision, the summary forwarded to the cabinet for endorsing the import from India was withdrawn.

When Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa talked about forgetting the past during his speech at the Islamabad Strategic Dialogue last month and Prime Minister Imran Khan talked about establishing peace with India on the same occasion, such statements were construed as a sign of flexibility in the approach of Pakistan for resumption of dialogue with the archrival. However, in view of domestic pressures, it became difficult for Islamabad to proceed without India restoring the occupied Kashmir’s special status. Now, Pakistan has thrown the ball in Modi’s court and it will be very difficult for him to go back on the August 5 move, given that it has been passed by the Indian parliament, and New Delhi has taken several steps to blur the identity of occupied Kashmir, particularly the Muslim-dominated Valley, like introducing the domicile act and legalising settlement of non-Muslims in order to transform the demographic complexion of the disputed region in its favour.

When I insist what is wrong with India and Pakistan, I mean to question the inconsistency in their approach about maintaining a stable relationship. When the two neighbours possess abnormal relations since their inception, it means there is something improper in their way of doing things. There are countless examples to prove that India and Pakistan acted in an unnatural and uneven manner – something that cannot be termed a normal behaviour. There are two major reasons showing why there is something wrong about India and Pakistan maintaining a stable bilateral relationship.

First, it is the culture of warmth, hostility and indifference which shape the mindset of those who have been at the helm of affairs in India and Pakistan. For instance, when the two sides are not on speaking terms, they will not even have a handshake with each other to express warmth. However, in January 2002 on the occasion of the SAARC summit – held in Katmandu in the backdrop of severe tensions between the two sides following the attack on the Indian parliament – President Pervez Musharraf while returning to his seat after his address at the summit stopped where Prime Minister Vajpayee was sitting and offered a handshake. Vajpayee, who was taken aback because of Musharraf’s gesture, reluctantly reciprocated. That handshake was symbolic like the one on the occasion of the June 2019 SCO summit in Astana between Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif. One wonders whether the founding leaders of the two countries – Mohammad Ai Jinnah, Liaquat Ali Khan, Mahatama Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru – would have imagined that relations between the two countries would be too cold to be restricted to mere handshakes.

Second, there is another dimension to the abnormality in the Indo-Pak relations which is visible when their leaders rather embrace each other with great warmth and cordiality – as was displayed in meetings between Ayub Khan and Jawaharlal Nehru; Rajiv Gandhi and General Zia-ul-Haq; and Nawaz Sharif and Inder Kumar Gujral. Isn’t it abnormal that on the one hand they avoid meting each other and on the other they engage in tight, warm hug with each other? The current stand-off between the two countries will reflect what used to happen in the past, and it would not be surprising to hear one fine morning that the two countries have agreed to resume the dialogue process aimed at normalising their relations. It is quite likely for people to get across the breaking news that Prime Ministers Imran Khan and Narendra Modi have agreed to have a summit meeting, notwithstanding the serious allegations both leveled against each other in the wake of the revocation of article 370 which ended the occupied Kashmir’s special status. It is also possible for this change of heart to happen without India showing any flexibility on the status of the occupied region, and Pakistan giving in.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 25th, 2021.

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COMMENTS (1)

S.R.H. Hashmi | 3 years ago | Reply To be honest there is not much wrong with India and Pakistan because both are just the names of certain specified regions. What is and has actually been wrong is the leadership of the two which apart from founding leaders comprised below par corrupt and power-hungry vision-less persons from both civilian and military streams. And now their similarly-disposed children are waiting to take over. This spell was broken briefly by PTI but unfortunately the party led by Imran Khan has proved to be completely unprepared for the position making the situation worse through the arrogance and rigidity of Imran Khan who shows no willingness or even ability to learn and seems to be living in a make-believe world of his own totally unaware and unconnected with serious events taking place within the country the region and beyond. The sooner a new government is formed by picking relatively better persons of integrity and ability from across the party lines the better it would be for the country. On the subject of Pakistan-India relations the writer concludes his article saying It is quite likely for people to get across the breaking news that Prime Ministers Imran Khan and Narendra Modi have agreed to have a summit meeting notwithstanding the serious allegations both leveled against each other in the wake of the revocation of article 370 which ended the occupied Kashmir s special status. It is also possible for this change of heart to happen without India showing any flexibility on the status of the occupied region and Pakistan giving in. To start with it should be obvious to every thinking mind that with both countries being nuclear-armed now it is not possible for Pakistan or India to snatch and grab any more of the territory that it already controls. And only a fool could believe that India will offer the occupied territory to Pakistan on a plate or give complete freedom to Kashmiris. That leaves the option of Kashmiris in the held territory attaining freedom through struggle but even that is possible only in the circumstances where the freedom fighters gain access to outside help over and above the moral and diplomatic support that Pakistan Turkey and some other Muslim countries provide them. Unfortunately such additional help is neither available nor likely. Of course the last option could be the influential and powerful international community especially the United States and its Western allies exerting pressure on India directly or through the United Nations to give the Kashmiris in the occupied territory the option to have an independent state or to join Pakistan. However the US and its Western allies see India more as a big market for their products as well as their partner in the region against China. So even the last option stands ruled out. And that means we as well as the Kashmiris in the Indian-held Kashmir have got to accept the bitter reality that the only possibility is a significant improvement in their living conditions which enables them and Muslims elsewhere in India - to lead normal lives while accepting the fact that they will remain under Indian control. There is no point in giving false hopes to people in IHK by encouraging them to stand up and fight only to lose and suffer even greater repression. In fact anyone giving them such advice would not be doing them any favour. On the contrary he would be making their lives even more difficult by depriving them even of whatever relief was possible. Of course a conciliatory move resulting in an ultimate peace with India would also benefit Pakistan by reducing tension both at its eastern and western borders apart from benefiting the whole region and its residents economically and otherwise. In fact this is the only way forward for Pakistan and India. Remember there were times when Indians saw no problem having Muslims in top state positions like the president military generals and even as an air force chief. Obviously getting back to that state would not be easy but that is the direction in which the two countries ought to be moving like the European countries did ultimately after fighting bitter wars for ages. Surely the 1.5 billion inhabitants of the sub-continent deserve better than what they have been getting from their corrupt weak and vision-less leaders so far. Karachi
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