PRIME Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday reiterated Pakistan’s willingness for a meaningful dialogue with India on all outstanding issues.
During a meeting with British High Commissioner Jane Marriott, he appreciated the UK’s role in de-escalating tensions during the Pakistan-India standoff and underlined Islamabad’s desire for peaceful co-existence. In a related development, Pakistan’s envoy to the UN told India that rather than being blinded by hubris and a misplaced sense of impunity, and instead of resorting to its tired narrative of victimhood and blame-shifting, New Delhi must introspect seriously, change its behaviour and comply with its international legal obligations on all counts.
The two developments, once again, highlight the stark contrast in positions of Pakistan and India as the former lays emphasis on peace and dialogue while the latter believes in blame game, false propaganda and bullying tactics, a tendency that led to recent war between the two nuclear armed neighbours. In fact, the checkered history of bilateral relations between the two countries shows India either runs away from dialogue on different pretexts or engages in talks with Pakistan just to buy time to camouflage its illegalities and violation of international laws. This is borne out by India’s draconian and unilateral actions in the context of occupied Jammu and Kashmir in an attempt to convey an impression of resolution of the dispute (internally) but the issue stands firmly on international agenda with a majority of nations emphasizing the need for its peaceful settlement through dialogue. Similarly, Pakistan repeatedly urged India that instead of blaming Pakistan for everything wrong taking place in India, New Delhi should share evidence and sort out issues through peaceful means. Power drunk India always entertained a false notion that it was in a position to dictate its terms and establish its hegemony in the region but the myth of its superiority was broken during the recent conflict when Pakistan responded to Indian aggression in a befitting manner. It is regrettable that India has not learnt any lesson as its war mongering leadership is still relying on falsehood and persists with its designs to sort out issues through the use of force as is evident from statements emanating from New Delhi, hue and cry at regional and global forums, suspension of Indus Basin Treaty and intensified plans to acquire latest weapons and technologies from across the globe with clear intentions to use them against Pakistan. In this backdrop, we appreciate Pakistan’s focus on dialogue but at the same time it must not lower its guard because of what is happening across the eastern border.
