On the right track

Government’s stance on relations with India

The hate syndrome, deliberately whipped up by successive governments and hawkish elements both in India and Pakistan, has almost become visceral and whenever somebody tries to advocate a break from this mutually destructive posturing, it invariably invokes a deluge of criticism and alarm among the proponents of belligerent disposition towards India till the resolution of Kashmir issue through the mechanism provided in the UN resolutions.

The immediate case in point is the new peace offensive that Mian Nawaz Sharif is pursuing for normalisation of relations with India. During his election campaign he has been forcefully emphasising the need to improve relations with India which he thought was imperative to change the economic profile of the country as well as enjoying the fruits of shared economic prosperity that would be unleashed by ending the decades old conflict between the two countries. These can be dubbed as objectives that he wants to achieve through the recently re-initiated back channel diplomacy, dialogue between political and military leadership and enhancement of bilateral trade that also includes import of electricity and gas from India to tide over the energy crisis in the country.

The detractors of his peace offensive feel that Nawaz Sharif is moving away from Pakistan’s stated position on the Kashmir issue as he said nothing about it in his address to the nation. They further say that while India had strategic reasons to increase trade and selling electricity and gas to Pakistan aimed at making the country dependent on it for these vital economic inputs and using them as a leverage to affect its policies on Kashmir and Afghanistan, Nawaz Sharif was only acting with a mindset of a businessman and not as a statesman.

To a rational thinker, the contention seems a bizarre proposition and reflects lack of understanding of economic mechanisms and the ground realities. Purchasing electricity and gas from India is only one of the options that the government is working on and in no way forms the pivot of the energy policy. The major thrust of the policy is on production of coal based electricity and other renewable energy resources available within the country by attracting foreign investments as well as mobilising the domestic entrepreneurs to stake their interests. If the plans to buy electricity from India come through, India in no way will be able to use it as leverage against Pakistan in changing its stance on Kashmir and Afghanistan.

In regards to trade with India it is wrong to assume that this would be a one-sided affair leading to opening up Pakistani markets for Indian products. Those who believe so need to study economics. Trade between two countries is invariably based on comparative advantage. We will be buying the stuff from India which is expensive to produce here and we will be exporting those products to India in which we have the comparative advantage in the cost of production. This will be to the mutual advantage of the two countries. Further, to say that he said nothing on Kashmir in his address and he was moving away from the stated position on Kashmir, is also a misstatement. He termed Kashmir a “jugular vein” of Pakistan and that said it all.

He definitely has a strategic plan to go about normalisation of relations with India that has non-traditional ingredients and approaches without compromising on the ultimate objective of resolving the core issue of Kashmir. It is already on the agenda of composite dialogue. His logic and vision are beyond any reproach.

In his interview with Daily Telegraph he has emphasised the need for an end to the arms race between Pakistan and India and sparing resources for the social sectors like health and education. In the face of incessant Indian provocations on the LoC, he has exhibited exemplary restraint and repeatedly urged the need for defusing the situation through enhanced interaction between the military leaders of the two countries. He also revealed to the newspaper that his government and military were on the same page in regards to this new initiative, contrary to the view that army and ministry of foreign affairs had been kept out of the loop. This all indicates that his peace overtures to India were part of a well thought out strategy enjoying the support of all the stakeholders, including the people who endorsed his initiative by voting him into power.

Some circles, mostly the armchair gladiators and pseudo intellectuals are also urging to internationalise the Kashmir issue and build pressure on India to end or at least ease repression in Kashmir and create necessary space for the Kashmiris to continue their freedom struggle. They are terribly out of touch with the changed global realities. In spite of the fact that there are 23 UN and UNICEP resolutions on Kashmir calling for plebiscite to determine the accession of Kashmir, neither the UN nor the powers like USA and its allies are anymore interested to support any move to internationalise the issue. They have repeatedly urged India and Pakistan to resolve it through bilateral channels as envisaged in the Simla Agreement, though legally speaking it does not preclude the possibility of raising this issue at the UN. But the global environment is not conducive to any such undertaking. It dictates a pragmatic approach such as one envisaged by Nawaz Sharif.

The writer is an academic.