Walking the talk
While agreements were reached and targets agreed upon in the Heart of Asia Conference by Pakistan, Afghanistan and India, serious challenges loom ahead for those who are required to implement them. Pakistan and India agreed to initiate a comprehensive dialogue. Afghanistan agreed to resume its stalled peace talks with the Taliban. Pakistan is to act against insurgents operating from Pakistan’s soil against Afghanistan and Afghanistan has to dislodge Pakistani Taliban stationed in its eastern provinces.
There are strongly entrenched lobbies in each one of the countries who are opposed to improvement in relations. By appointing a general as NSA, Pakistan has institutionalised the army’s role in dealings with India and Afghanistan. With the army assuming the responsibility of removing the hurdles in the way of improved relations, a part of the problem is resolved. The extremist groups which would have pounced upon Nawaz Sharif for trying to improve relations with India or promising to extirpate the groups creating havoc in Afghanistan are tight-lipped. The otherwise highly vocal anti-India fringe in Pakistan has also become dormant for the time being.
Anyone caring to go through the comments in prominent online Indian newspapers would find enough unhappiness over the accord with people calling Pakistan an unreliable country and predicting terrorist attacks from Pakistan in India. The extremist Sangh Parivar, too, is uneasy over the accord. The hawks in the Indian army are likely to find it hard to digest it. Narendra Modi, being a Hindu nationalist leader who enjoys a massive mandate, is however in a position to deal with the lunatic fringe. Both Pakistan and India have to work hard to foil any possible attack inside India by Al Qaeda, TTP or Daesh as peace and amity in South Asia do not suit the networks. President Ashraf Ghani has numerous detractors, as the strong opposition from his NDS chief to the accord indicates. The best way to help Ghani to pursue the policy of peace is for Pakistan to fulfill its undertakings in letter and spirit.
