Meticulously prepared?
Strangely, Sartaj Aziz did not do a very good job of convincing the Pakistani nation itself about the government’s dossiers regarding alleged Indian involvement in terrorist activists inside Pakistan. It turns out, after all this time, that there was no ‘material evidence’ provided to the US and UN; supposedly to protect information sources. What has been passed, therefore, is a document of ‘pattern and narrative’. How that advances Pakistan’s case is anybody’s guess, especially considering the noise both the civilian and military leadership had been making about the matter for quite a while. Sartaj Aziz was quick to try and rephrase, but was still not much clearer.
India, of course, is not the only country we have intelligence and infiltration problems with. The western border is a similar story in many ways. We have been accusing Afghanistan of aiding and assisting subversion inside our borders, just like they have been pointing the finger at us for nurturing and harbouring their insurgents. And the situation has hardly improved over years. Things got better recently, after the Murree initiative, but did not take long to plunge into the same old vicious circle of accusations and counter accusations.
The Pak-India dispute is a matter of increasing concern for the whole region, and indeed beyond, especially since the Modi government took office and turned up the heat. Pakistan’s frustration – and the decision to take the RAW case to US and UN – was, in all fairness, a reaction to India’s stiff new position. But in marketing a hard case and then presenting soft evidence, especially in internationally, will not win Islamabad too many points in circles that matter. And it will definitely not generate too much goodwill back home. The government is expected to take these matters more seriously and realise that its evidence needs to be more meticulously prepared.
