Economic corridor, Afghan talks attracted an adverse reaction from Indian side: speakers

The China Pakistan Economic Corridor, Pakistan's successful strategy against terrorism and Pakistan's role in bringing both Afghan government and Taliban to negotiation table are major developments that have attracted an adverse reaction from the Indian side. These thoughts were shared by the speakers at a seminar organised by Muslim Institute on "Deadlock on Indo Pak Dialogue & Implications for the Region" here on Wednesday.
Senator Lieutenant General Abdul Qayyum (Retd), Chairman of National Assembly's Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs Sardar Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari, Former Ambassador to India Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, Former Defence Secretary Lieutenant General Asif Yasin Malik (Retd), Chairman Muslim Institute Sahibzada Sultan Ahmad Ali and Ambassador Asif Ezdi (Retd) were the speakers of the event.
Speakers of the seminar added that in such an environment, violations of cease-fire on LoC and Working Boundary, and deadlock in Indo-Pak peace dialogue are indicative of a negative and hostile Indian mindset towards Pakistan. India cannot see a stable and progressing Pakistan; and therefore has been in the past and present involved in covert activities to destabilise Pakistan internally and isolate Pakistan in the International community. Currently, Pakistan is picking up the best available options based on research and analysis, to strategize and launch a strong Foreign Policy for countering the Indian half-truths.
They said that whenever Indian government faced internal pressure on any count, it tried to tackle the same by increasing tensions with Pakistan. The BJP government in its election manifesto claimed to abolish special status of Kashmir in Indian constitution after coming into power. However, it badly failed to lure Kashmiri populace during elections in Indian Held Kashmir. Following such humiliation, it has resorted to use of brutal and barbaric force against innocent Kashmiris and also in parallel is trying to ignite tensions with Pakistan, to pre-empt any internal backlash from its own people. Pakistan has shown the areas near LoC to UN representatives that have been badly affected by Indian atrocious attacks in violations of the cease-fire. UN, Saarc, SCO and other regional organisations should take notice of Indian aggression, and take concrete steps to stop it, as the same can give rise to a larger conflict between two nuclear powers at any time, posing an extremely serious threat to the whole region.
Pakistan has always taken its position on Kashmir based on UN resolutions and it should further embolden its stance on Kashmiri people by involving them in all Pak-India dialogues on this topic. On the other hand, India has tried to maintain its illegal occupation on Kashmir through military aggression, use of force and other repressive measures. India always employed a dubious policy on the Kashmir issue exercising underhanded tactics such as negative propaganda, physical violence and obstinacy. UN resolutions clearly give the right of self-determination to Kashmiri people and emphasize that any dialogue between Pakistan and India should include Kashmiri's voice to make the dialogue successful and effective for resolution of Kashmir issue. The international community has supported Pakistan's stance and the recent statement of German Foreign Minister about Kashmiris' involvement in dialogue reflects the reality.
Pakistan has assertively claimed having proofs of RAW's involvements in fomenting terrorism and insurgency in Pakistan and announced to hand over dossiers of the same to Indian side during talks between National Security Advisors as well as to raise the issue on international forums including the UN General Assembly. In such circumstances, India has no option except to back out of dialogue to deflect domestic as well as international pressure. It also rejected the backdoor diplomacy along with composite dialogue. It is high time to come forward for meaningful dialogue and solve the oldest outstanding core issues like Kashmir, Sir Creek and Siachen, to have durable peace, as well as, for economic growth in the region.
History has clearly shown us that involvement of a singly third party whether it is United Nations, US or former Soviet Union and bilateralism, as a moderator, in dialogue with India, has never worked. Therefore, there should be international involvement and facilitation for meaningful dialogue. Pakistan should maintain its open door policy for meaningful dialogue on all issues with India but it should not be apologetic. Foreign delegates, intellectuals, researchers, politicians, parliamentarians, academicians, students and journalists also participated in the seminar.-PR