Some forward movement?
After a few months of extreme tension in Pakistan-India ties, repeated conflagration on the Line of Control (LoC) which made Indian generals, politicians regardless of which party they belonged to and the media froth at the mouth while indulging in Pakistan bashing, there was a bit of a freeze and now there are hints that some movement towards repair and reconciliation is under way. The Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad has called on the prime minister, where, it has been reported, the Indo-Pak bilateral ties and matters of mutual interest came under discussion. Almost simultaneously the prime minister’s younger sibling, a topnotch politician and government figure in his right, landed in New Delhi along with Tariq Fatemi, the PM’s special assistant on foreign affairs for a daylong visit to meet the Indian head of government Dr Manmohan Singh and others. And he too discussed with his Indian interlocutors the same issues: improvement in Pakistan-India relations and confidence building measures.
The timing and the similarity of issues being discussed at the highest level is too much to be a coincidence. It bespeaks of some sort of an initiative to mend fences between the two traditional rivals after ratcheting down the fiery rhetoric. This is sensible approach, especially given the transforming geopolitical scenario it would be in the fitness of things that Pakistan and India normalise their relations as swiftly as possible. But will the ongoing reengagement bring about such a result and the bitter antipathy that has been the par post Mumbai 2008 will evaporate is anybody’s guess – especially given the scenario that 2014 is a year of elections in India, and Pakistan bashing brings tangible gains in terms of votes.
It cannot be gainsaid that Pakistan needs to get out of this India-centric quagmire. The PM Nawaz Sharif has given his public commitment “to settle all contentious issues with India”. But will India reciprocate? That remains a point of conjecture, but the need for both nations to improve relations at the earliest cannot be overstated. Without waiting for India to respond, Pakistan under Nawaz Sharif ought to do what Pakistan can: move fast in punishing those implicated in Mumbai attacks, and grant India the MFN status. On top of this it needs to reorient its ‘India the No 1 enemy policy’, and being cognizant of the existential threat replace the TTP as its arch foe.
