A landmark development in Indo-Pak relations: View from across the LoC

Since its inception, Pakistan’s military has implemented an aggressive foreign policy with India. It has undermined the efforts of democratic governments for rapprochement,facilitated war and decades of mistrust and animosity. President Zardari’s government has given positive signals to New Delhi on improving bilateral relations. Breaking away from the cycle of history, the military establishment under the leadership of General Kayani has welcomed the move.

In his latest contribution, Retired Lt. Colonel Abdul Rashid from Rawalpindi gives his take on the improving civil-military relations in Pakistan and how it portends harmonious relations with India.

Pakistan army chief Ashfaq Pervez Kayani

There have never been permanent realities during the past annals nor can we expect that in the future. It had always been almost blasphemous for a military leader to address India other than ‘enemy’, leave alone declaring in loud and clear terms the need for rapprochement with India. The army chief Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, during his visit to the Gayari sector of the Siachen glacier, synthesized, in so many words, the concept of peaceful co-existence with India. He stressed the need to demilitarize the sector and also wished success for the ongoing peace process between the two countries. It was an important policy statement by the army chief, given after due deliberations and not an impulsive slip of the tongue.

The futility of the war path treaded by the Pakistani leadership with India for over six decades is staring us in the face, while the world community has been mocking us for all this while. Why? The answer is that the religious right trailing behind the army leadership maintained the hype of Indian animosity. The damage done to the humanity living in the sub-continent due to this flawed premise is colossal and immeasurable. Instead of bewailing the past we welcome the transformation, taking solace in the adage:  “It is never too late” or “it is better to be late than never”.

Our defence establishment, our political leadership and the people carry vivid memories of applying violent means to solve our problems with India. Every exercise in this regard resulted in a bloody nose to us and colossal economic downturns that substantially added to the miseries of the people of Pakistan. The dictates of knowledge and common sense suggest that we give peaceful means a chance to resolve our problems with neighboring India. Without the army leadership’s support no political administration could succeed in that. Now since the Pakistani army leadership is on board for the ongoing peace initiative with its Indian counterpart, one could logically hope to expect better results.

Casualties of the Salala incident

A serious breach had occurred in US-Pak relations after the Salala incident in November 2011. NATO forces engaged Pakistan security forces at two checkpoints at the Salala area of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. The incident lead to the death of 24 Pakistani soldiers and wounded 13. Both US and Pakistan realized the need to fill this breach. Pakistan’s political leadership, instead of the old practice of taking dictation from the army, chose to take the Parliament in confidence to get the terms of reorientation of the nation’s ties with the US formulated by the legislators of the state. The army, in an obvious manner, expressed solidarity with the Parliament in this regard. Some pundits, instead of calling it a welcome change, brushed it aside terming it ‘window dressing’ by the defence establishment. The follow up statement by the army chief during his visit to the Gayari Sector has a substantive link with the parliamentary exercise mentioned earlier. Kayani’s statement signifies a definite change of heart of the army leadership regarding Pakistan’s foreign policy.

The Religious right: Jamaat-ud-Dawa leader Hafiz Saeed at a rally in Lahore

The religious right, having failed to secure a place in the mainstream political canvas of Pakistan, has made a common cause with the army to perpetuate non-democratic rule in the country. The aim has been to isolate the populace from, secularism, globalization, and modernity which, in turn, would facilitate exploitation of the people by religious pundits. That arrangement worked as long as governmental highhandedness and the anarchic working of the security establishment remained ‘hush-hush’ affairs.  A decade of free media gradually exposed the misdeeds of all and sundry. Army being the best organized institution in the country began to realize the importance of transparency and realism ahead of all.

General Kayani will go down in history as a realist aiming to break the cycle of perpetual conflict with neighboring India. It is now well understood that the religious right, left high and dry by the defence establishment, will fight tooth and nail to resist this wave of change. But they seem to be on the wrong side of history as the roller coaster of peace, enlightenment and democracy is poised to move in top gear and rubbish all obstacles.

Horrible actions of the religious lobby, the government and the security establishment have systematically been laid bare before the citizenry by the media during the last decade. The process of transparency thus imposed on all state and non state actors makes it impossible to reverse the process by any stretch of imagination.

This landmark development will go a long way in diluting the distrust between the Indian and Pakistani states. The democratic governments of Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto in the past and Asif Ali Zardari during the current epoch tried their best to initiate the process of normalization of relations with India. However, neither the Indian leadership nor the world at large took these overtures seriously as, in our case, foreign policy was dictated by the defence establishment and not the democratic governments. Therefore, all the endeavors for rapprochement amounted to placing the cart before the horse.

India-Pakistan amity

The important policy statement by our army chief will be taken to be from the horse’s mouth by the Indian leaders as well as the world community. I sincerely hope that the ongoing peace process with India will gather lot of momentum from the event, and we will be a lot closer to our destination of resolving all our issues including the core issue of Kashmir, and achieve a lasting peace with our estranged neighbour.