The eternal deadlock

It is a bitter reality that none of the disputes, either current or historical, which exist between India and Pakistan, have ever been resolved. It is an equally bitter reality that the list of disputes, large and small, gets added to by the month. The rift between the two conjoined states has impeded development in both, brought both to damaging and ultimately pointless wars, and unless there is a sea-change in the national political mindset in both India and Pakistan, this is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future, and both sides need to realise that.



The latest ceasefire violation by India shooting across the Line of Control (LoC) has led to the death of a woman. A senior Indian diplomat has been summoned to the Foreign Office in order that a protest may be lodged.

Guns do not fire by themselves; somebody has to give the order to fire. And somebody else has to give an order to the person giving the order to fire and so on up the tree. It is that chain that has to be broken and broken for good if there is to be peace, and that applies wherever there is friction along the line.

Whether the uptick in military hostilities is going to affect the meeting that is due to happen between the national security advisers of both countries in New Delhi is an open question. Pakistan has said it will accept the invitation, but at the same time has cast doubt on Indian intentions. Alongside the LoC incidents, there is a bubbling dispute about Indian interference in Balochistan and the tribal areas, and concerns that India may try to sabotage the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor that is the vital key to our future long-term development. And then there is Kashmir. And the Indus Water Treaty. The list of disputes seems endless.

Taken together, there is a Gordian knot of the seemingly-impossible to resolve. For any negotiation to succeed, there has to be give and take. There is no point in going to the table empty-handed. This is not some elegant diplomatic gavotte; lives and livelihoods are at stake and both sides need to move on from the politics of the kindergarten.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 13^th,  2015.

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