Pakistan

‘Pakistan should stop terror to build confidence’

External Affairs Minister SM Krishna said the only option for Pakistan to bridge the “trust deficit” with India.

Hindustan Times August 13, 2010

External Affairs Minister SM Krishna on Thursday said the only option for Pakistan to bridge the “trust deficit” with India is to take effective steps to stop terror emanating from its soil. “The biggest confidence building measure will be that Pakistan stops any further terror attacks from its soil and stops the speeches made against India by jihadists,” Krishna said while replying to supplementary questions in the Rajya Sabha.

“Terror is our core concern when we have talks with our counterparts in Pakistan,” he said.

Reacting to Bharatiya Janata Party member Prakash Javdekar’s remark that the dialogues with Pakistan were meaningless, the minister asked him to “suggest a viable option instead of dialogue”.

“There were uninterrupted dialogues between India and Pakistan from 2004 till the (2008) Mumbai terror attack. Mumbai attack was a point where we had to discontinue the dialogue with Pakistan,” he said. He said in the meeting between the prime ministers from the two countries during the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) summit in Bhutan in April, a decision was taken to rebuild trust.

“They identified that there was a trust deficit. It was decided that it will be done (bridged) by meeting at the secretary and minister level. We are trying to fulfil that mandate,” Krishna said.

Expressing dissatisfaction over Pakistan’s attitude in bringing to book the culprits of the Mumbai attack, Krishna accused Pakistan of having a subjective approach towards Jamat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed.

“Whenever we mention Jamat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed, whom we consider the mastermind of the Mumbai attack, Pakistan becomes subjective. We certainly would like Pakistan to be helpful so that we can live in peace,” he said.

The minister added that India wants a peaceful Pakistan as this will bring peace to the entire region. HINDUSTAN TIMES

Published in The Express Tribune, August 13^th, 2010.

COMMENTS (2)

Najeeb Pandrani | 14 years ago | Reply Bothy India and Pakistan are equally responsible for this chaos. Musharraf had a regional policy, and to put his agenda of regional cooperation into practice he gave out of the box solutions to resolve Kashmir issue. Besides Kashmir, he sincerely wanted to get other issues resolved. India dragged her feet and wasted time, which, resultantly, gave the impression as if the Indians are not serious. Thus, the trust deficit further widened. Here i hold India accountable. Now where Pakistan went wrong? Pakistan inherited a over-developed state structure where executive runs parallel to the state. Here executive means the top brass of army and bureaucracy. This military-bureaucracy oligarchy has caused great damage to Pakistan. Historically, they along with the political elites implemented imperialist powers' policies in this region. These powers did not want peaceful relations with India and Pakistan, both for economic and strategic reasons. Despite the fact that this was against the interests of the people of Pakistan, our policy makers chose to prefer military build up and acrimonious relations with India over economic stability of the country. These jihadi organizations and so forth are the product of such policies. Let us suppose that this policy helped pakistan in past, which in fact it did not, the ground realities now has changed dramatically. India is viewed globally as a responsible emerging state. So much so that India is claiming a permanent seat in the Security Council of UNO. Unlike the Cold War era, India now is a ally of the West and both are interdependent upon each other. While Pakistan is included in most accounts in the category of failed states. The leaders in Pakistan now must cease to be stubborn. Instead of strategic over-stretch, concentrate on economic development because at the end of the day economy serves as a base for strategic ventures and not the other way round. We need to learn from China, which has kept her disputes with Taiwan and Tibet low profile and concentrated on economic development alone. Former USSR, on the other hand, imploded only because she preferred strategic overstretch over economy. NAJEEB PANDRANI GCU LAHORE

Tauseef | 14 years ago | Reply What else is there to say or to comment upon! I have read in newspapers what the Jamat-ud-Dawa chief has been saying for the past so many years. These people openly speak against India, and so does every Islamist in the country. So much so, that patriotism to the nation is guaged by the degree of virulence one can spit against the Indians or the Americans. There is little doubt in my mind that these entitities are the assets created by Pakistan army to wage proxy war against Indians in a similar fashion as the Talibans were created and nurtured to gather strategic depth in Afghanistan. Why is this all happening? The whole world knows what's happening in Pakistan except the Pakistanis. Such is the degree of deception created in this country! They want people to contiue to believe in official truths, they want people to continue to believe in their usefulness when there is none. They wish disputes to keep on erupting so that they can exploit them and draw huge salaries and perks for their institutuion. I have been converted to the idea over a long and painful period that this country was created to provide for its military. They are the all powerful bosses, and they continue to write the script as per their perception. What else and what more to say..! I wish we could get rid of them.

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