If India’s Diwali initiative was an important one designed to hasten the pace of normalising Indo-Pak relations, Pakistan Id gesture of deciding to hold its fire along the Line of Control (LoC) is also significant. Through its latest move, Pakistan has broken out of the reactive mould in which it had found itself. Ever since Prime Minister Vajpayee’s Srinagar offer of peace earlier this year, it has had to constantly respond to Indian peace proposals. The unilateral ceasefire initiative, in contrast, signals an ownership of the peace process that was hitherto not apparent.The Indian government has, quite rightly, responded positively to Pakistan’s proposal and has even modified somewhat its favoured formulation that there can be no progress in achieving peace without the cessation of cross-border terrorism. Now India’s external ministry spokesman states that for the ceasefire proposal to become “durable” there must be an end to infiltration from across the border. Notice the more positive spin given to a familiar statement. It may only be a change of nuance, but in diplomacy nuance could be a portend for a more substantive re-orientation. The other aspect of Pakistan Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali’s statement on Sunday is the positive manner he has responded to the 12-point peace initiative extended by India on October 22. There was none of the hostile currents and unwarranted sarcasm that had marked the response of the Pakistani foreign secretary, Riaz Khokhar, to it. There was no attempt, for instance, to bring the UN into the picture, neither were there references to Kashmiri “widows”. Pakistan’s political establishment has, in fact, signalled that it is prepared to consider all the issues on the table — not just the “soft” ones but even a difficult matter like a Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service.Are we then to see that promised change in the “atmosphere of confrontation” that Jamali talked about, through an exercise of “strong political determination”? The answer must necessarily be cautious. For one, it is difficult to say whether Jamali is speaking for General Pervez Musharraf. Then there is the extremely vexed issue of cross-border terrorism. There can be no disputing the fact that the extremists who perpetrate mayhem on this side of the border have the support of the Pakistan establishment, or at least some sections of it. If there are still doubts on that score, read the graphic account the Express carried of a young shepherd from Gujranwala, Pakistan, who was recruited as one of the fidayeen behind the recent stand-off at Srinagar. If the peace process is not to be derailed by a future attack of serious dimensions, Pakistan will have to demonstrate its will to crack down on this phenomenon.
