Another round of CBMs!
INAUGURATING yet another peace initiative in the region styled as a National Security Dialogue arranged by the Security Division, Government of Pakistan in collaboration with five leading think-tanks of the country, Prime Minister Imran Khan passed the baton on to Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa to deliver his keynote address the following day, which turned out to be a rare piece of expertly crafted strategic rendition.
But who are we addressing!
There was nothing substantively new in Pakistan’s Army Chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa asking India and Pakistan to bury the past and move on for collective good of the people in the region in general but both India and Pakistan in particular.
The only difference was that the statesman-like expose’ came from an defence forces commander rather than the Prime Minister of the country.
Not that the Premier on many previous occasions, even at the cost of some flak from his opponents accusing him of capitulation hasn’t extended the olive branch to the adversary across the eastern border, but has played a pivotal role in brokering a peace deal between the US and Afghan Taliban, which reflects Pakistan’s sincerity for peace in Afghanistan and beyond.
General Bajwa’s discourse is indeed laudable for his broad vision studded with stoic realism as he recommends sub-continental rapprochement despite its susceptibility to politically motivated bellicosity while cautioning of frayed relations between various power centres and competing alliances; underscoring the need for the leading global players to reach a stable equilibrium through convergence instead of divergence.
Might one ask what the US, China and India in that order, spending colossal amounts on their defence have achieved or established except earning the ire of the weaker free-world! The only exception perhaps of late among them is the Chinese example, which has sincerely invited the world to connectivity through its Belt and Road Initiative for the collective good of mankind.
Gen Bajwa, although, has cautioned Pakistan not to see everything through the prism of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, and rightly urged the nation to concurrently put Pakistan’s own house in order to gain strength through internal stability and development.
The world so far in repeated episodes of wars, both hot and cold, may have recorded freak accomplishments at the cost of precious human lives and resources, but no one even now despite embarrassing reversals to the mightiest ever since, seem to be contemplating a change from confrontation to rapprochement; hence this invitation to dispassionate introspection.
Man according to the Holy Quran has been made in-charge of his destiny by the Almighty.
It is still time for him to take the right decisions for the good of his fellow beings and not repeat its self-centred approach to world affairs as in the past which has led him nowhere.
Pessimism takes hold of me when reflecting upon several rounds of the so-called Pakistan-India confidence building measures over the past decades; the [in-]famous CBMs, starting with the Tashkent Declaration and Simla Accords, followed by a series of measures like the Samjhota Train and Bus services, exchange of cultural delegations under the banner of ‘Amn Ki Asha,’ and sporting ties etc. all ending up in smoke and leading to worsening of relations.
Ironically while itself staging the Samjhota express massacre of Muslim travellers and the thousands of them in Indian Gujarat verified subsequently by its own official accounts, desecration and pulling down of the historic Babri Mosque in Ayodhiya to replace it with a Hindu temple, a series of attacks inside India including the Delhi Parliament, Mumbai and Pathankot which India staged itself, it blamed Pakistan, stretching it to Uri and Pulwama in its occupied territory of Kashmir; succeeding in making the world believe its concoctions against Pakistan until recently, when the EU Disinfolab Indian Chronicle took the lid off decades old manufacturing of Indian disinformation against Pakistan and China, and exposed its ugly face.
Although Pakistan was well within its constitutional rights and obligations to come to rescue and aid any effort at liberating the Indian occupied part of Kashmir, it hashad no role in the Uri or Pulwama episodes.
As to the Delhi Parliament and Mumbai attacks inside India, several Indian as well as international accounts such as the one from Elias Davidson well before the EU Disinfolab revelations, proved them to be India’s own handiwork; more so with the Indian side having unilaterally hung Afzal Guru and Ajmal Qassab without sharing any credible evidence against them with Pakistan even till today.
Things since then have changed for the worse with illegal annexation of its occupied part of Kashmir by India in total disregard and contempt for standing UN Resolutions and proceeding to make demographic changes in it with the UN watchdog unfortunately remaining silent over these abhorring excesses.
But the more India resorts to force and treachery the more it strengthens Kashmiri resolve for freedom, reflected in their demos on this ‘Pakistan Day’ waving Pakistani flags and chanting slogans of solidarity with Pakistan.
The language and insinuations in Indian PM Narendra Modi’s message of felicitations and his desire for cordial relations to his counterpart on the Pakistan Day were devoid of diplomatic parlance in contrast to those from other world leaders.
His requirement of an environment of trust devoid of terrorism for normalization of relations between the two countries, was neither sincere nor honest but pure and simple hypocrisy as it mirrored India’s own dirty mindset; at that very moment intensifying killings and cleansing of Muslim population in India-occupied Kashmir as well as inside Pakistan.
One has no prescription for obsessed minds such as the Indian media; deliberately distorting Bajwa’s sincere appeal to forget the past and move ahead to mean forgetting Kashmir, despite the General unambiguously emphasizing to resolve the core issue bedevilling relations through dialogue.
This takes everything back to square one, as with such a track record of the adversary, who pray! I, Zaheer Bhatti s/o Mohammad Ismail CNIC No. 61101-4649632-5 is the Pakistan National Security Dialogue seeking to address, convince or impress!
—The writer is a media professional, member of Pioneering team of PTV and a veteran ex Director Programmes.
