In Pakistan’s interest

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made a strong statement on Tuesday accusing Pakistan of using terrorism as state policy. The PM and the foreign secretary are unwilling to believe that the scale and sophistication of the Mumbai attack could have been possible without the knowledge and cooperation of some official agencies in the neighbouring country. Above all,India is concerned about Pakistan’s evident inaction post-Mumbai,and justifiably so. But of equal,if not more,concern is the fact that the official statements coming from Pakistan have been pathetically inconsistent. Soon after the Pakistani establishment dismissed Ajmal Amir Iman Kasab’s confession as “doctored” and the evidence provided by India as “insufficient” — thereby refusing to act on either — the Pakistani High Commissioner to India,Shahid Malik,said that “there is no question of Pakistan rejecting India’s evidence”. Pakistan since then has also said that it is “examining” the material,and will respond in “a day or two”. Now,the dossier provided to Islamabad and the international community includes Kasab’s confession,GPS and satellite phone records of those involved in the Mumbai attack,transcripts of conversations between the terrorists and their handlers in Pakistan as the security forces battled the militants. The evidence also includes details of the arms and equipment recovered from the terrorists. The FBI too has examined this evidence and built its case thus. Pakistan won’t do itself any favour by calling this evidence “insufficient”.

India needed to make a calibrated diplomatic effort to win over the international community. Through it all,Pakistan was to be pressured into investigating the Mumbai trail,banning the suspect outfits and handing over those individuals India wants to interrogate. India enjoys the confidence of the international community. But that is not altering the ground reality. Pakistan has been obstructing India’s efforts and refusing to meet its demands at every step. It has refused to hand over the perpetrators of the attack arguing that there is no extradition treaty between the two countries. But,as it has been pointed out,even without the treaty,Pakistan was obliged to extradite them under the SAARC Charter and international conventions. Incidentally,the Jamaat-ud-Dawa still functions under a new name despite the UNSC-sponsored ban.

Pakistan’s global credibility is at an all-time low. Not only does the world believe that 75 per cent of all terror trails lead to Pakistan but the country is being consumed by all-round state failure. It has also been staring at bankruptcy. It is in Pakistan’s interest to treat India’s demands as an opportunity. If it acts on the Mumbai evidence,it might still redeem itself internationally. It promptly responded to Manmohan Singh’s statement on Tuesday,but is yet to act in the right areas.