Pak-India better ties in both states’ interest: ISSI talk

The Institute of Strategic Studies (ISSI) organised a public talk under its distinguished lecture series on ‘A Security Route to Cooperation: A New Blueprint for Pakistan-India Relations’ on its premises.
ISSI Director General Ambassador (retd) Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, while welcoming the guests, highlighted the importance of the topic and said that maintaining good relations with India was in the vital interest of Pakistan. Though Pakistan was going through difficult times and facing multiple problems, this particular problem needed special attention, he said.
Speaking on the occasion, renowned scholar, Dr Shireen Mazari said Pakistan-India peace process continued to be stalled despite a growing recognition that peace and regional cooperation were in the long-term interest of the people of the region. “Track-two dialogues continued to focus on people-to-people contact as a means to move forward but, unfortunately, real conflicts that exist between Pakistan and India cannot be resolved simply through this methodology. Media initiatives such as ‘Aman Ki Asha’ reach out to people across the borders, but do not offer substantive solutions to the real conflicts,” she opined.
She said, “Many foreign analysts cite EU model for Pakistan and India, but there is a need to understand the origins of the EU to proceed in the similar fashion. The underlying message from the EU model is that for effective and long-term peace and cooperation, Pakistan and India will have to move forward first in the sensitive security and contentious issues.”
She also spoke about the model of the Good Friday Agreement between the British and Irish governments and between them and eight political parties. With the help of these two models, the speaker put forward her recommendations to the security route to cooperation between Pakistan and India.
Mazari said there had to be a breaking of the logjam on Kashmir. The indigenous nature of the struggle in Kashmir could not be denied. In this regard, she also mentioned a conference held in Delhi where some political parties along with some NGOs for the first time supported the Kashimiris’ right to self-determination.
She was of the view that in the context of Kashmir, the Good Friday Agreement became very relevant as it recognised the right of the people to choose their own future through a referendum and the binding clause for both the states not only to accept the result of such a referendum but also allow the people the choice of periodic referendums in case they changed their mind.
Dr Mazari further proposed confidence-building measures in the sensitive security issue areas, especially in the nuclear field. She viewed joint nuclear power generation as one of the important routes to security cooperation as both the countries were overt nuclear powers and energy deficient.
She also made a strong pitch for some kind of an agreement on nuclear restraint for a number of reasons. In addition to it, the list of nuclear facilities that both countries exchange at the end of every year should also be expanded, she opined.
The presentation was followed by a vibrant question-answer session during which a number of guests raised certain issues that plagued the relationship between these two neighbours.
At the end, the ISSI director general thanked Dr Mazari for presenting her views and recommendations which provided food for thought. He said India-Pakistan relationship would always be fragile. For Pakistan, it had become imperative to make such an environment in which it could negotiate with India without compromising on its principled stand.