These armchair defence analysts, who having retired after gainful employment oppose every sensible political move by civilian executive to normalise already strained relationship with India, forget that Soviet Union with its stockpile of nuclear weapons and armaments collapsed because their economics could not sustain their fire power, nor feed their population.
Kashmir crisis could have been resolved in 1948 if only our military officers had chosen to obey lawful command of Quaid-e-Azam, instead of listening to British commanding officer. Thereafter our senseless pursuit of strategic depth, a concept created by an overambitious establishment, blinded by greed for power and desire to rule Pakistan through the power of bullet, has made this country very insecure. A lot has been lost since then and for that it is a collective failure of both our civil and khaki establishment, which course has to be reset with sanity and realism, keeping our vital national interests in view.
I fail to understand this hype over Modi’s visit when in past Zia-ul-Haq went uninvited to India to prevent war while Musharraf after his senseless Kargil fiasco went out of his way to shake hands with Vajpayee in Kathmandu and his Foreign Minister is on record that Kashmir LoC was being almost accepted as permanent border without consultation with Kashmiri representatives.
If only Pakistani leadership were to ensure rule of law and that those at helm dare not have any conflicts of interest, this country would never have got involved in other people’s war as they did in Afghan conflict, forfeiting our territorial sovereignty and giving refuge to foreign armed militants who today have turned on us with a vengeance. While I agree that PM Nawaz must ensure that his sons with their vast investments abroad must not be involved with dialogue process with India, nor should they accompany him on his foreign trips to ensure there are no conflicts of interest, he has every legitimate right to take steps to restart dialogue process with India to normalise relations and avert being in continuous state of tensions.
If we cannot be best of friends, we must learn to live with each other, respecting our individual territorial sovereignty. Kashmir is a burning issue which will take time and a lot of effort and goodwill on both sides.
MALIK T ALI
Lahore
Excellent analysis, far better than many of our so called pseudo independent media anchors and rent a pen journalists.
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