Will Pakistan Army heed nation’s policymakersIJ
Given that Pakistan's Army has a vice-like grip on its country's India policy, the recommendations by Pakistan's National Assembly to the Nawaz Sharif Government to avoid “encouraging” support to militant groups in Kashmir and to act against outfits involved in anti-Indian terrorist attacks are unlikely to find any traction among policymakers there. The National Assembly's Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs had on Monday released a four-page paper on Kashmir, where it made these suggestions. It is difficult to imagine that the Army there will reverse a policy that has been its mainstay since Pakistan came into being and given it legitimacy even when it usurped power. The thought becomes even more inconceivable in the present situation where most non-partisan observers believe that the elected Government of Mr Nawaz Sharif is in no position to push ahead with its agenda for better relations with India without his Army's blessings. Nevertheless, the importance of the panel's advice cannot be downplayed, especially since the committee is headed by a lawmaker belonging to the ruling Pakistan Muslim league (Nawaz) party. Among the suggestions are that Pakistan should not “encourage calls for active support to armed, banned, militant groups in Kashmir” and that it must “continue seeking comprehensive engagement with India on all outstanding issues”. Of course, the committee does not fail to mention that Kashmir remains a core issue for Pakistan and that the latter must continue to provide “solid diplomatic and moral support” to the Kashmiris. As on date, this ‘moral and diplomatic' support has also encompassed covert military support and logistics from the Pakistan Army. If the patronage and training of militants by the Army were to end, it would certainly create the right environment for a resolution of the issue between New Delhi and Islamabad. India has never shied away from discussing Kashmir but has maintained that the matter cannot be resolved through proxy wars that Pakistan has engaged in through militant outfits. The parliamentary panel's recommendations have come at a time when New Delhi is awaiting concrete action by Pakistan against the perpetrators of the Pathankot attack. The lack of tangible action has held up the Foreign Secretary level talks between the two countries and consequently delayed the start of the Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue as well.
The parliamentary panel's suggestions are also an indictment of the India-specific policies of various Governments, both civilian and military, that have ruled in Islamabad over the decades. The support to militant groups to strike in India (and Kashmir in particular, in the given context) has dented Pakistan's credibility across the globe as a nation committed to fighting terrorism. Pakistan's oft-repeated line that it has itself been a victim of terror on many occasions and that it has cracked down on terror groups such as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and the Al Qaeda, finds few takers as excuses worldwide. Everyone understands that Pakistan has been choosy in targeting terror outfits and that even when it had committed to fighting the ‘war against terror' alongside the West, it was constantly double-crossing the US and others.