Ahmad Riyaz
With Pakistan Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kiyani also raising a pitch for peace with India, one gets a fleeting sense of unanimity in the country’s foreign policy towards India. This is despite the fact that Kayani has said nothing that can be seen as a radical advancement on his country’s age old position on the relations with India.
So, there is a risk that we may be overestimating the significance of Kiyani’s statement. But the drift of his opinion and the context in which it has been aired shows that the military and the civilian establishment may not be as far apart on the relations with India as is made out to be in the media in India. More so, Kiyani has made the statement following the recent “pilgrimage tour” of the president Zardari to India.
The visit came in the backdrop of the Pakistan’s move to extend Most Favoured Nation status to India. Zardari sought to put accent on the trade with New Delhi and if Karan Thapar is to be believed, he even sought to delink Kashmir from the economic engagement of the two nations and in fact seeking to leave to a more “enlightened future generation” to resolve. From the standpoint of Pakistan’s standard policy on Kashmir, Zardari’s idea is a radical departure. But considering that he has always been on the outs with his powerful Army chief, there was reason to dismiss this as his personal opinion. But with Kiyani speaking in the same tone if not in the same language, one senses a degree of consensus in the country on Kashmir. However, situation is far from absolutely clear and it will be only when the relations between the two nations enter a phase where there is a progress on contentious issues that things will be out in the open.
But there is also another side to this debate. There is an opinion that Pakistan’s current stance towards India is geared to keep India engaged so as to get more time to concentrate its energies on war in Afghanistan. Pakistan, it is said, is dictated by the imperative to wait out the period before US departs from the region. And post-US exit all bets will be off in an altered geo-political context. Then cold war between the two countries can be expected to resume with renewed ferocity.
But with two countries in the process of integrating their economies, the situation also has the potential to take a different trajectory. The two countries can chart a path of development and prosperity for the region. But this will be only possible if they don’t relegate their embittered history to the background. For it has traditionally exhibited the felicity to return to haunt them. The best possible course for the two countries to put their demons to rest is to proceed simultaneously on the problems that have historically kept them apart while deepening their economic ties. But the question is whether the two neighbours are finally up to this onerous task.
