Things that matter
The Americans naturally had Afghanistan top-most in mind for the Obama-Sharif meeting in Washington. And, just as expected, they quickly shared Pakistan’s position on an Afghan-owned and led reconciliation process. That they are still calling for direct talks between Kabul and the Taliban, even though President Ashraf Ghani’s government has moved away from that position, and still asking Pakistan to facilitate such a process – after the post-Murree debacle – must count as a winner for Islamabad. The focus, ultimately, was more on Pakistan’s proposal of taking the talks forward than Afghanistan’s accusations that the former helped the Taliban engineer the recent fall of Kunduz.
But the greatest point-scorer, without doubt, was getting Obama to talk not only about repeated LoC violations and the need to settle outstanding issues, but specifically the Kashmir problem. Nawaz had no such luck during the previous meeting in 2013. The Joint Declaration issued then did not even mention the dispute. This time, though, he got Washington advocating dialogue to settle the Jammu and Kashmir through peaceful means. In return, Pakistan must finally dismantle the vast terrorist infrastructure that continues to function in urban Sindh and Punjab, despite Zarb-e-Azb proceeding at full pace in the tribal area.
But Pakistan has promised action against LeT, etc, before, without delivering. In a way, Obama has tied progress on this front with the backing on Kashmir talks, etc. And Pakistan has few options but extending the military operation to urban centres, where lethal sectarian outfits have long been based. Perhaps Islamabad, too, has realised, however late, that taking out these outfits sooner rather than later is in fact in the best interest of the country. Getting on the right side of the Americans is important not just politically, but also financially, in a country like Pakistan. So long as Uncle Sam is happy, international financial institutions keep dolling out the billions Islamabad needs to keep functioning. So the good outing means there’s a good chance that some of the expiring aid and loan packages will have favourable sequels. So far so good, then, as far as Nawaz is concerned, at least.
