Pakistan’s Peace Initiative with India: At what cost?

Pakistan’s Peace Initiative with India: At what cost?
  • The Bloomberg, on March 2021, reported UAE brokered secret talks between India and Pakistan.
  • The Week dated April 15, 2021, says quoting Ayesh Siddiqa, a Pakistani defense analyst that she believed such meetings had been held for “several months”.
  • Al Jazeera dated 15 April, 2021, too supports the secret India-Pakistan talks.
  • Ayesa Siddiqa claims that, “I think there have been meetings in Thailand, in Dubai, in London between the highest-level people”.
  • National Security Policy, NSP, just released by Islamabad claims that “trade with India” must begin for economic stability in Pakistan.
  • Dr. Moeed Yusuf is the architect of the new NSP-Pakistan.
  • Veteran diplomat Abdul Basit takes the NSP’s expectations with India resulting to a Cipher.
  • Has Pakistan sacrificed Kashmir issue for “geo-economics”?
  • Indian media claim that Pakistan has tentatively “sidelined” the Kashmir issue?
  • Bigger question Pakistani people may ask now: could Dr. Moeed Yusuf’s honesty for Pakistan’s security interests be challenged now?
  • Pakistan’s NSP claims peace with India for hundred years. An absurd claim for sure given India’s track record.  
  • Putting all threads together, question is: Pakistan still an equal match and deterrent to India?

N. P. Upadhyaya

Kathmandu: The visible ‘détente’ in between the two declared rivals in the recent days, months and years, India and Pakistan, is what the people of the entire South Asian region patiently awaited.

But is this peace real in South Asia? Will these two countries henceforth will not collide on the borders and on issues of Kashmir?

Let’s discuss it in details.

Needless to say, any friction or say high magnitude scrimmage in between Pakistan and India is sure to threaten the regional politics with chances of China and the US jumping into the scene to extend support to their presumed “allies” remain intact.

And it is this possible political scenario, close to catastrophe, which is what has to be avoided at any cost by the two regional powers, India and Pakistan, in order to keep the region secured from any likely security threat.

If the two “powers” jump into the Indo-Pak rivalry, it is sure to have unimaginable consequences.

Needless to say, both India and Pakistan being equipped with nuclear capabilities possess itself the potential to threaten the lives of millions and millions of population living in this part of Himalayan Asia and beyond.

Wisdom thus demands that both the countries exhibit their utmost restraint and take care in not repeating the same political blunders again and again both in words and deeds.

By implication, wisdom would also demand that the “powers” mentioned above too refrain from making any hasty moves to extend their helps if and when the two South Asian rivals confront each other.

In a rare departure from the intermittent verbal war of words, India and Pakistan both have acquired a “peace-like-posture” which bodes well for the entire region and much beyond.

Informed sources both in Delhi and Islamabad authentically claim that since the changing of the status of the Indian Occupied Kashmir on August 5, 2019 and the subsequent so called “surgical strike” carried out by the Indian establishment in retaliation of what was disseminated by the paid Godi Media (India) as to have been made after the Pulwama attack.

To recall, the 2019 Pulwama attack occurred on 14 February 2019, when a convoy of vehicles carrying Indian security personnel on the Jammu–Srinagar National Highway was attacked by a vehicle-borne suicide bomber at Lethapora in the Pulwama district of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

India shifted the blame onto the heads of Pakistan to which later Arnav Goshwami, an Indian TV anchor of high voltage, repudiated.

Thanks the entire Godi media’s allegations/accusations were later proved to have been brought into play by the Modi regime in order to blame Pakistan which ended with the “damages” caused to some pine or oak trees inside Pakistani territory wherein flight Commander Abhinandan have had to submit himself to the mercy of the Pakistani military personnel.

The captured Abhinandan later told the Indian media that he was treated in a friendly manner which is what normally not in practice with the POW’s-the prisoners of war.

But the person who “failed” in his mission was last year awarded a Heroic award that perhaps Abhinandan did not deserve by any prevailing War standards and practices.

Back to the point:

Several attempts for building peace in between the two countries, India and Pakistan, in the past have been made but the born enemies on some counts, even artificial at times, come face to face and hurl allegations on each other blaming the other to have damaged the peace efforts in the making.

Nepal hater and a top Indian hypocrite Atal Behari Bajpayee, too tried to build peace but his bureaucrats and the erratic Indian Army went against his peace plans and once again the two countries came face to face.

Late Vajpayee was the one Indian national who trained and indoctrinated the Nepal Maoists in Delhi and provided them with government shelter and were told to “devastate” Nepal.

The Maoists obeyed the A. B Vajpayee dictates through late Brajesh Mishra-the National Security Advisor.

So isn’t India, more so late Vajpayee, Nepal’s declared and recognized “enemy” of the highest order?

The process still is continuing.

The Tashkent declaration and the Shimla Agreement, to name a few, were in place which was expected to bring in peace in South Asia for all time to come but miserably failed.

After signing the Taskent declaration, the Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri died whose death still remains a mystery.

The signatory of the Shimla agreement, Mrs. Indira Gandhi and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto also have left for their heavenly abode.

Mrs. Gandhi was killed by her own body guard Beant Singh.

Mrs. Gandhi died soon after the Delhi massacre of the Sikhs and since then the movement for the creation of Khalistan has taken an upward swing.

The Sikh diaspora residing in United Kingdom and Canada are the ones who have kept the Khalistan movement alive much to the discomfiture of the Sikh and Muslim hater regime in India.

Resource rich India (filthy media included) devise schemes on how and on which ruse to accuse Pakistan is now an established fact.

Needless to say, Pakistani media is no match, even inferior, to the Indian media that more often than not forgets the media-ethics-decency and pounces upon the other party in a cruel manner that is not only ad nauseating but repulsive as well.

If Nepal’s experience with India were any clue then India will remain ever at the first place to damage peace not only in South Asia but in the entire world.

This is in the Indian DNA. Guaranteed.

A rough estimate has it that by time this story is being written, India has illegally swallowed Nepali territories to a staggering one and a half Lakh hectares and, unfortunately, the India installed government in Nepal has no courage to send even a simple diplomatic note on matters relating to Nepali land grad by the South Asian curse-the Indian establishment.

The emergence of the republic of India in this part of South Asia in 1947 is no less than a curse.

Or it is even bigger than a bad word.

That India takes the lead in damaging the prospects of peace gets endorsed by the erratic manner the Indian Army Chief, M. M. Naravne, has made some harsh comments on neighboring China.

He is the most undisciplined Indian Army man who had made ugly and filthy comments on Nepal wherein he had chastised Nepal, 2020, instructing not to get lured by the Chinese designs.

Most unfortunately, he was recently awarded the title of Honorary General of the Nepal Army which this erratic man doesn’t deserve. It was a matter of shame to the Nepal’s glorious past.

Let’s take what senior political analyst, Madan Regmi, has to state on Naravne’s filthy remarks:

Regmi states, “He out of the way in a TV address regarding India-China border standoff said, “We will win if there will be war with China and we are prepared for it”.
When he said the Chinese and the Indian Army teams led by commanders were talking to disengage the troops. Naravne’s wild remark is likely to make the disengagement more difficult. China’s construction, writes Regmi, works in its territory will continue”.

Naravne is out and out a farce and that he doesn’t know the Chinese capabilities.

Naravne is advised to revisit the 1962 war with China which broke the vertebral columns of the racist, Islamophobic, Hindu supremacist Indian regime.

He bluntly stated last week that “The threat posed to India by China’s PLA‘s massive buildup along the LAC –the de facto boundary between China and India had not come down despite disengament of troops at some points.

He further said, “The Indian Army stands firm to counter any attempt to unilaterally change the status quo along the country’s borders and India’s desire for peace is born out of strength and should not be mistaken otherwise”.

In a miscalculated talks with the Press, Naravne concurrently irritated neighbor Pakistan wherein he stated that “Pakistan still had camps harboring 350-400 terrorists at training camps and “launch pads” in territories under its control across the LoC.

He added that the increase in concentration of terrorists in “launch pads” and repeated infiltration attempts exposed Pakistan’s “nefarious intents” against India.

Naravne committed a blunder this time around in that he teased the two “fierce lions” in the neighborhood with whom India have had never enjoyed cordial relations.

Naravne’s mis-adventure has been that he has challenged the Pakistan-China axis and that he failed to perceive that he is teasing the two countries whose increased proximity over these years is not only substantial but “exemplary” too.

And now look how China first and later Pakistan fires back at the erratic Indian Army Chief’s accusations.

To a query posed by the Bloomberg, January 13, 2022, on how China reacts on the Indian Army’s recent outbursts on China, the official spokesperson Mr. Wang Wenbin said “At present, China and India are in dialogue and communication through diplomatic and military channels to ease the situation at the border. We hope that ‘certain individual’ on the Indian side would refrain from making unconstructive remarks.

The use of the word “certain Individual” by Wang Wenbin speaks of it all as to how low and inferior India is taken by the Chinese establishment.

Though China is not a reliable friend of Nepal but to bring India back to its senses, China would do well if it pounces upon India with a much greater force as compared to the 1962 War.

China is comfortable for Pakistan only in this region for a variety of political and geo-strategic reasons-the immense benefits from the Gwadar port in Pakistan.

Now look at Pakistan’s fury against Indian Army Chief.

ARY news reported last week stating that “Pakistan has categorically rejected the Indian Army Chief’s fallacious comments made at a press conference, insinuating the presence of so-called “launch pads” and “training” camps across the Line of Control (LoC)”.

The Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson said in a statement that, “There is nothing new about the Indian General’s unfounded allegations, as these are a part of the malicious anti-Pakistan propaganda being pedaled by the BJP-RSS combine at the helm in India.”

The Pakistani anger continues and says, “The Indian government is driven by its belligerent and expansionist agenda embedded in the delusional notion of “Akhand Bharat”, which poses a grave threat to regional peace.”

The Pakistani rebuttal further says, “The spokesperson criticized that the Indian Army Chief has made a desperate attempt at diverting global attention from India’s state-terrorism and egregious human rights violations, which continue unabated in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

Thus “Pakistan calls on India to forthwith halt its tyranny in the IIOJK, renounce its campaign of persecution of Kashmiris, and let them exercise their right to self-determination as promised to them under the relevant UN Security Council resolutions”.

The fact is that India is a severe threat to the South Asian Regional peace, opine Nepali intellectuals who were not in the payroll of the Indian embassy or from the RAW mini-office in Kathmandu.

In addition, India is an expansionist force in South Asia which has gulped Nepali landmass to the tune of one lakh hectares and yet alleges that China is a colonizing force.
India is mother of all the worldly evils, to put it straight.

Given these erratic attitude of the regional “burden”, Pakistan and India appear to have been talking “peace” underneath.

Peace with India is impossible given India’s track record of harassing, bulldozing, bullying, intimidating and coercing, Pakistan is better advised to make peace with India on a matching terms and conditions.

Or else, Pakistan too will have the same fate of what Nepal is having as of today.

Nepal has lost more than one lakhs of hectares of its landmass by installing “comfortable” government in Nepal by replacing more or less a nationalist government led by Prime Minister K. P. Oli.

This not to mean that KP Oli is not close to the RAW? Yes. He is.

In a way, the RAW is running Nepal.

Nepal’s political parties house RAW men inside the parties. RAW matters in Nepal after the ouster of Monarchy.

Why Monarchy was ousted has become clear to all and sundry.

Pakistan and India though can’t reconcile for good but yet to give peace yet another chance, have tentatively decided not to poke each other to a perilous extent.

Our own sources have it that the high level intelligence officers of both India and Pakistan met in a third country as back as in January 2021.

Sources say that the two national security advisors of India and Pakistan, Ajit Doval and Dr. Moeed Sayed too have secretly met either in Dubai or in Bangkok.

Since January 2021, a close look at Pak-India bilateral relations does tell that no such events have taken place that could trigger war.

Perhaps it is the underneath subtle diplomacy being practiced by the two rival nations that has relieved the SA region of imminent threat to regional peace and stability.
I recall, one high level authority from United Arab Emirates to have said beamingly that “we are mediating in between India and Pakistan” and appealing both to come to terms.

The Bloomberg Interestingly, in March 2021, had reported that the UAE had brokered secret talks between India and Pakistan, which led to an agreement to strictly adhere to the mutual ceasefire on the Line of Control that was announced in 2003.

The Week dated April 15, 2021, says quoting Ayesh Siddiqa, a Pakistani defence analyst, had told Reuters that she believed such meetings had been held for “several months”.

“I think there have been meetings in Thailand, in Dubai, in London between the highest-level people,” Siddiqa told Reuters.

Al Jazeera dated 15 April, 2021, too supports the secret talks and says that “Officials from India’s Research and Analysis Wing, the external spy agency and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) travelled to Dubai for a meeting facilitated by the United Arab Emirates government”.

Ayesa Siddiqa authentically says that, “I think there have been meetings in Thailand, in Dubai, in London between the highest-level people”.

Pakistan understands well that India can any time “back stab”, but yet the National Security Policy, NSP, just released by Islamabad claims that “trade with India” must begin for economic stability in Pakistan.

Dr. Moeed Yosuf is the architect of the new NSP-Pakistan.

But is India equally interested in trading with Pakistan? Perhaps not as Abdul Basit claims.

Veteran diplomat and former Pakistan High Commissioner in India, Abdul Basit takes the NSP’s expectations with India is sure to go to the dogs as Pakistan in the past has tried such policies but results were cipher.

Has Pakistan sacrificed Kashmir issue for “geo-economics”? Pakistan is yet to speak as the Indian media claim that in lieu of Kashmir issue resolution, Pakistan prefers trade with India now.

The NSP claims that Pakistan’s nuclear deterrence regime is aimed at “regional peace”.

“Pakistan remains committed to normalization of relations with its neighbors based on mutual respect , sovereign equality, and a collective effort to find pathways for conflict resolution with the belief that the shared economic opportunities are cornerstones for achieving prosperity in Pakistan and the region”, the NSP claims.

Indian media claim that Pakistan has tentatively “sidelined” the Kashmir issue and that for economic wellbeing it has shelved the Kashmir imbroglio. Are the Kashmiri people left to the mercy of Almighty?

Bigger question Pakistani people may ask now: could Dr. Moeed Yusuf’s honesty for Pakistan’s security interests be challenged now?

Pakistan’s NSP claims peace with India for hundred years. An absurd claim.

# Bigger question Pakistani people may ask now: could Dr. Moeed Yusuf’s honesty for Pakistan’s security interests be challenged now?

Establishment of peace in the region is a most welcome move though. 

Finally, is Pakistan still an equal match and deterrent to India? Keep on guessing. That’s all.