‘India loses space for talks due to narrow ideology’

• Basit says Kashmir not a territorial dispute between Pakistan, India

ISLAMABAD: India is losing space for negotiations due to the spread of a narrow ideology that causes greater animosity, especially towards Pakistan and Muslims, Dr Muhammad Mujeeb Afzal, associate professor at the Quaid-i-Azam University said at a day-long seminar here on Wednesday.

Speaking on ‘Making Pakistan-India Dialogue Possible and Sustainable: A Way Forward for Shared Future,’ he said the Indian extremist ideology was equating terrorism with the freedom struggle in Kashmir. He said the hawkish elements in Modi’s administration wanted to restore India’s hegemony, and that did not involve giving any concessions, rather they wanted to isolate, encircle and weaken Pakistan, besides tempering its linkages with traditional allies, neighbours and potential friends.

IPRI President Abdul Basit highlighted that Jammu Kashmir was not a territorial dispute between Pakistan and India as it was a political and humanitarian issue. It was primarily about the Kashmiri peoples’ right to self-determination as granted to them under several United Nations Security Council resolutions, which had been accepted by previous Indian governments.

He called for greater will on the part of the government and the people of Pakistan to find a way towards Kashmir’s peaceful resolution. The seminar was organized by the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI). Associate Professor Dr Farhan Hanif Siddiqi, in his presentation, said that relations between Pakistan and India could be characterized as one of ‘frenemies’ –alternating between periods of peace and conflict.

He said the conflict had become an overarching feature of Pakistan-India bilateral relationship. He said in order to move forward with peace, both countries needed to look towards absolute gains with economic overtures and regional connectivity mechanisms such as CPEC and OBOR. However, he said the shadow of the future was still cast in strategic terms making it impossible for larger peace initiatives to be implemented and reciprocated.

“If both Pakistan and India do not do so, the opportunity of increased economic development promised by the ruling elites of these countries to their masses will be easily challenged and forfeited,” he added. Former Defence Secretary Asif Yasin Malik gave a historical overview of the Kashmir issue starting with the 1948 local armed uprisings that flared in various parts when the princely state was asked to join either India or Pakistan. He said that despite peace pledges and confidence-building measures to settle differences bilaterally through peaceful means, hardly any progress had been made.

No meaningful bilateral discussions had taken place and the Kashmir dispute continued to fester, he added. “The problem has been that having a good Pak-India relationship has been the corollary for the resolution of Kashmir, whereas it should be the resolution of Kashmir which should lead from the front.” He stressed that it had never been the military which had impeded the peace process; rather the most out-of-box solutions to the conflict came from a military government.

Malik said that the sad irony was that the people of Kashmir had become secondary in the conflict, even though they were the ones who were paying the price with their lives, and the lives of their women and children. He said hopes for peace remained grim because in the global environment there was utter apathy towards Kashmir, which was not seen as a problem as there was only concern about a nuclear war between India and Pakistan.