Pakistan PM’s peace initiative is a big sham
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's so-called ‘four-point peace initiative’ to resolve the dispute between India and Pakistan on Kashmir is a desperate attempt to impress the world community in the midst of increasing isolation that he faces on the matter. It is also a way to deflect attention from the popular unrest among the people of Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir against his Government's policies and seek to secure international mediation on Kashmir. But Mr Sharif is not going to succeed. He wants demilitarisation in Kashmir and the unconditional withdrawal of troops from both sides from Siachen, among other things. The affairs in Kashmir are India's internal matter and decisions on militarisation or demilitarisation are those that New Delhi will take on the basis of the situation prevailing there and in the country's larger interest. Pakistan has no role to play. As for the presence of troops in Siachen, India is in an advantageous position and it need not fritter that away. Pakistan had earlier too sought to push for the withdrawal of troops (effective demilitarisation), but not because it is sincere about establishing peace. It wants to seize the advantage that India presently has in Siachen. Islamabad cannot be trusted. We need to remember its conduct at the Haji Pir pass. Every time it got an opportunity, it used the bulge to infiltrate armed militants into India. It was in the 1965 war that India took effective control of Haji Pir, dislodging the Pakistani troops. Following the post-war agreement, New Delhi pulled out from there, returning the pass to Pakistan. It now remains a potentially troublesome spot for India. That Mr Sharif's claim to be the peace-seeker is hollow is even more evident by his rant at the United Nations. He knows well enough that neither the UN nor any country or grouping is going to intervene, as all have acknowledged that the matter is a bilateral one between India and Pakistan. If the Pakistani Prime Minister had been indeed serious about settling the issue, his officials should have been engaging with the Indian side without introducing disruptive conditions (such as insisting on talking to the Hurriyat before high-level talks or raising the Kashmir matter when its desirability wasn't feasible). Pakistan has maintained that it is a ‘victim of terrorism' and, therefore, is committed to fighting terror. In that case, why did it back out from the National Security Advisor level talks some weeks ago on terrorismIJ
It is a fact that there have been many terrorist attacks in Pakistan that have claimed hundreds of innocent lives there, but the striking groups are the ones which were till recently patronised by the establishment there, especially the Pakistan Army and the Inter-Services Intelligence. Now that they have turned against their benefactors, Islamabad is hounding them and claiming that as evidence of its commitment to fighting terror. However, it props up anti-India militant organisations. The terrorists then suddenly become ‘freedom-fighters'.