EDITORIAL: Nawaz Sharif, veteran politician that he is, is wise to identify Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar’s successful visit to Pakistan for the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation) summit as a prelude to a possible Pak-India thaw.
Speaking to Indian journalists covering the event, the former three-time prime minister of Pakistan also hinted at a likely meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi “in the near future”, even though Nawaz himself does not occupy a government office at present.
These are positive signs, especially since it’s not just Pakistan but the entire Asian continent that has been waiting for India to overcome its needless aggressive posturing and reactivate regional commercial forums like SAARC.
Jaishankar is now the first Indian foreign minister to visit Pakistan in nearly a decade, and he restrained himself from his typical pointed hits at Pakistan whenever he’s close to a microphone – in fact, he thanked his hosts for their hospitality – means there’s enough momentum to build on.
But it will take both sides to play ball for things to move forward. Some observers believed that BJP’s humbling in the recent Indian general election would make Modi realise the futility of isolationist political rhetoric and revisit his position towards Pakistan. That hasn’t happened so far.
But SCO could be the game changer everybody was hoping for; provided there is as much will to move forward in Delhi as there is in Islamabad. Like Nawaz said, the two countries have a bitter past but there is a need to “look forward and talk about the future”,
Re-engagement does not mean jumping into the deep end right at the start. Contentious issues like Kashmir can be saved for later, but the two countries can still interact and trade with each other.
The present dispensation should draw lessons from about two decades ago, when confidence-building measures, a positive cricket series in Pakistan, and backdoor diplomacy brought the two governments “within a signature of settling Sir Creek”, in the words of former Pakistani foreign minister Khurshid Kasuri.
There is also an urgent need to revive trade ties. The governments can go on with their back and forth, but there’s no reason to make the people suffer.
Both countries know very well how they continue to struggle with unrelenting levels of poverty. Both also know that bilateral trade can and will lift a large number of people on both sides of the divide above the poverty line.
Pakistan’s position has been clear for decades. It’s India that refuses to sit down and talk to Pakistan, thus ensuring that nothing ever moves forward.
Yet since this deadlock has done nothing for anybody, not even BJP since its usual anti-Pakistan venom failed to do the trick at the last election, it’s time for everybody to wipe the slate clean and work out a progressive bilateral policy that will take the whole continent forward.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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