Editorial

How to Mend Fences

It is not Just Pakistan, it is everywhere, with disconent seeping into the polls, and protest parties thriving on people’s desire for a change. But the return of Nawaz Sharif to power in Islamabad doesn’t mean Pakistan is in transition to a different system. Nor does it signify radical shift in Pakistan’s India policy. The stance shown by the Pakistan Muslim League (N) chief Mr Sharif is laudable from diplomatic point of view. But the people on both sides of the fence are so used to meaningless diplomatic niceties taking the place of real political action that they have forgotten that things can be done any differently. Whether he can start India-Pakistan peace process with all seriousness, with a view to achieving results, by over-ruling domestic opposition, is anybody’s guess. His predecessors too didn’t talk against peace and finally nothing really moved on the ground. Civilian rule or non-civilian rule, the military is the ultimate word in shaping Pakistan’s destiny. And Nawaz Sharif’s announcement, immediately after winning the majority mandate that he would exercise authority over the army, sounds too childish to be ignored by political observers. Even Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto failed to handle hot potato and finally he was hanged by the army in blatant violation of all democratic norms and laws. Nawaz Sharif’s bitter experience with Musharraf is only the tale of yesterday, albeit the dictator is now in jail and Mr Sharif has now a chance to settle scores. No doubt his idea to abolish visas between India and Pakistan is innocuous and conducive to improvement of bilateral relations. Whether the hardliners in Delhi as also in Islamabad would like it or not is the real issue. Nearer home the saffron brigade criticised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for acting in haste in inviting Mr Sharif to visit India without waiting for dust to settle. Then much depends on how he could defuse civil war the people of Pakistan are facing day in and day out because of the jihadists’ refusal to call it a day.

In truth immediately after partition for many years there was no visa system between the two countries. The question of abolition of visa among SAARC countries is being discussed from time to time with no concrete outcome. The stumbling block standing in the way of improving bilateral relations is Kashmir and Nawaz Sharif has no magic wand to resolve the Kashmir tangle to the satisfaction of all parties concerned—India, Pakistan and Kashmiris. After all two parallel lines never meet. And it is too early to read much between the lines.

Musharraf paid a glamourous visit to the Taj Mahal with all the tall talks of friendship and lasting peace but the architect of Kargil war finally accused New Delhi of sabotaging his peace initiatives which in all fairness were aimed at getting more concessions on Kashmir. After the India-Pakistan war in 1971 Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto too showed his willingness to naturalise the line of control as permanent boundary but didn’t lose much time to raise the banner of jingoism against India while making peace as illusory as ever.

Right now mistrust coupled with the legacy of hatred of communal feelings, is so deep rooted among ordinary masses, among soldiers that even prisoners of war are being brutally treated and killed in barbaric, rather Talibani fashion. The very project of Pakistan may collapse if they somehow accidentally become friendly. Not that they don’t cultivate minor issues like cricket with a lot of enthusiasm and fanfare but they do all this to avoid major issues. High-profile politicians in Pakistan, have all along been clung to an uncompromising stand on Kashmir, ostensibly to address the domestic constituency. Sharif’s predecessors did it—in fact Sharif himself did it as prime minister on two occasions—and Sharif’s successors are unlikely to deviate from the charted course outlined by the founder of Pakistan–Jinnah.

Pakistani children are given lessons in schools to view India as the enemy number one right from the beginning, with a calculated move to hem in the Pakistani psyche. An atmosphere of peace and tranquillity cannot develop in vacuum.

Indian banias and their Pakistani counterparts stand to gain enormously while people too may be benefited, if they normalise trade relations by shelving the contentious dispute as the Chinese do with a number of its neighbours like Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines and to some extent with India. Generals in New Delhi and Islamabad don’t think trade, capital and migration flows can make things more easier. Environmental degradation doesn’t need passport. Nor do energy problems obey borderline, artificial or otherwise.
SAARC has so far been the weakest regional formation because of domineering attitudes of India and Pakistan and their refusal to seriously explore the advantageous possibilities of trade and business in today’s globalised economic adventure. Their in-born hostile mentally defies economic logic.

Also, talking of friendly relations without uttering a word or two about nuclear arms race in South Asian theatre seems too clever by half. Their peace efforts are nullified by increasing defence budgets much to the relief of the merchants of death. They won’t say farewell to arms race even if they are to eat grass. In the rapid pace of globalisation neither India nor Pakistan is advancing. The only people who are too eager to continue arms race under one pretext or another are military establishments of both countries. They are happy with the status quo—rather a ‘no war, no peace’ situation, all the time.

Frontier
Vol. 45, No. 46, May 26-June 1, 2013

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