PM to confer with top aides, military leadership

ISLAMABAD: Amidst escalating tensions on its volatile eastern border, Pakistan’s apex forum on national security will meet on October 10 (Friday) to discuss the repeated ceasefire violations by Indian troops along the Working Boundary and  Line of Control that has claimed nine lives and left many more wounded since the first day of Eidul Azha.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has convened a meeting of the National Security Committee at 10am on Friday, confirmed a spokesperson for the Prime Minister House. The prime minister will chair the meeting where attendees will include his top aides on foreign affairs, defence, finance, interior and information besides the top military leadership. The military leadership will brief the meeting on the precarious external threat.

The National Security Committee is the apex forum where all state institutions get an opportunity to provide their input on matters of national security, so that all important decisions are taken through collective thinking.

Prior to the ongoing border skirmishes, Pakistan and India were said to be quietly engaging each other through their respective diplomatic channels to revive the stalled peace process. New Delhi had suspended the composite dialogue process following the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

Foreign secretaries from the two countries were scheduled to meet in August in Islamabad in an effort to put the dialogue process back on track – but India withdrew from the talks at the last minute in protest at a meeting of Pakistan’s high commissioner with Kashmir leaders.

The arch nemeses were looking at the upcoming summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) as an ‘opportunity’ to break the deadlock, Foreign Office officials and diplomatic sources told The Express Tribune.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi are likely to join leaders of other Saarc member states at the summit, scheduled to take place in November. According to the sources, both Islamabad and New Delhi were keen on arranging a meeting between the two premiers on the sidelines of the event.

But the crucial meeting will hinge on the outcome of likely talks between Prime Minister’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz and Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

Efforts to revive the peace process began after Aziz, in an interview with a TV channel, acknowledged that the meeting between Pakistan’s High Commissioner Abdul Basit and Kashmiri leaders in New Delhi was ‘probably ill-timed’. It’s immediately not clear whether or not the peace push will go ahead irrespective of the ongoing brinkmanship, some analysts say the escalating tension could jeopardise such initiatives.

The ongoing border flare-up came after the two countries traded barbs over the disputed Himalayan state of Kashmir that has bedeviled relationship between them since 1947. Pakistan’s envoy to the United Nations again raised the longstanding issue on the global forum on Tuesday, calling for its resolution for durable peace in the South Asian region.

“Longstanding, festering issues cannot be swept under the carpet,” Ambassador Masood Khan, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN, told the General Assembly on Tuesday while participating in a debate on UN Secretary-General’s report on the work of the organisation.

Ambassador Khan also voiced serious concerns over unprovoked Indian firing along the LoC and Working Boundary. “We call upon the Indian government to immediately cease fire and help us preserve tranquility,” he said, adding that UNMOGIP, the world body’s observer force in the disputed region, must be enabled to play its role in monitoring the ceasefire.

Pakistan, he said, was pursuing a policy of constructive engagement to resolve differences and to enhance economic opportunities for the region. In this context, he reminded the forum of Premier Nawaz Sharif’s speech in the General Assembly in September that the core issue of Jammu and Kashmir has to be resolved through negotiations, in accordance with the wishes of its people. In this regard, the Pakistani leader reminded the United Nations of its own responsibility.

Meanwhile, the United States said it has been in contact with Pakistan and India to encourage the two South Asian countries to resolve their tensions through dialogue. “We have large embassy presences in both countries, so I’m certain we’re in touch, and we encourage ongoing dialogue,” US State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said.

On Monday, the State Department said it is “concerned about any violence along the Line of Control,” and urged that the two countries try to resolve tensions and disputes through dialogue.


Published in The Express Tribune, October 9^th, 2014.