Pakistan’s decision to grant the status of Most Favored Nation (MFN) to India reflects the change of the army top brass’s mindset, which believes that confrontation with India will further damage Islamabad’s interests given its strained ties with the United States.
The federal cabinet took the important decision of granting MFN status to New Delhi on Wednesday only after the nod from the military, which had been against the move until recently. The foreign policy managers here said had it not been for the nod from the army leadership, the extension of MFN status to India would not have been possible as had always been the case in the past. “It’s the collective decision and everybody including the army is on board. The military leadership believes that improvement in ties with India is the need of the changing situation in the region and it feels that Pakistan should have normal ties with its neighbours, especially India, when relations with the United States are strained and marred by tension,” a Foreign Ministry official said, asking not to be identified by name. He said that MFN status would have a positive impact on the ongoing Indo-Pak peace process and it would also facilitate result-oriented talks between Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh when they meet on the sidelines of the SAARC summit in the Maldives. Eminent Pakistani analysts such as Dr Hasan Askari Rizvi also believe that such an important step vis-à-vis India could not have been taken without the army being on board. “Actually Pakistan’s strained ties with the United States have pushed it to look for more foreign policy options, to go for increased ties with the friendly states in the neighbourhood, like that with China and also to improve the relations with its nuclear neighbour, New Delhi,” said Dr Rizvi. General (r) Talat Masood, another analyst, agreed that Islamabad’s mindset was changing but said there should be a qualitative change in the relations between the nuclear rivals.
He said the improved Indo-Pak ties would also have a positive impact on the security situation in Afghanistan, where there had been a proxy war going on between the two nations. Another Pakistani official, who also sought anonymity, said no doubt Pakistan wanted improvement in ties with India but there must be a positive matching response from New Delhi to the significant confidence-building measures from Islamabad. “Unless and until that is done, there can’t be real improvement in ties,” he said.