They don’t quite get it

Whichever way the joint statement by the US and the UK, calling for Pakistan to “strictly respect the LoC” is interpreted, the answer is the same: that Pakistan has continued to violate the sanctity of the LoC and must stop this. This was what Pakistan’s then prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, had committed to the US president on July 4, 1999, which then led to the end of the Kargil war initiated by Pakistan. But the other war, the covert one through the use of terror across the LoC, has continued in spite of numerous promises made by Pakistan’s president. It is not clear, therefore, what the present joint statement by Colin Powell and Jack Straw aims to achieve.

It was not so long ago when General Pervez Musharraf declared that no terrorism would be permitted from Pakistani territory. The problem is that such pronouncements have not been actually implemented although we were repeatedly assured by the top leadership in Washington of action in accordance with the promises made by the Pakistani leadership would follow. But these assurances have dissipated long ago. An Anglo-American statement demanding Pakistan fulfil its obligations in the backdrop of events in West Asia carry even less conviction. And that is how Islamabad seems to have interpreted it by an arrogant dismissal, topping up with a demand that the US should end the war in Iraq!

It is obvious that if the bilateral issues between Pakistan and India are to be resolved peacefully, then there has to be clear understanding of what is threatening peace and, therefore, what is the priority in moving ahead. Surely Washington and London by now are familiar with the situation on the ground. The state of J&K has been well on the way to normalcy since last year. And dramatic acts of terrorism that we suffered last week were clearly designed to create roadblocks, if not actually de-rail, the process of normalisation. It is time, therefore, that Washington and London give up proffering half-hearted advice to New Delhi and focus on the basics.