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Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (42607)	5/19/2002 1:04:32 PM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50167

Pakistan was anticipating Indian move Comment By Tariq Butt ISLAMABAD: Pakistan was anticipating for quite some time that India would ask Islamabad any time to withdraw its high commissioner from New Delhi to downgrade its diplomatic relations with Pakistan. The Indian decision announced by External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh in New Delhi after a meeting of Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), chaired by Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, therefore, did not come as a surprise to Pakistan. However, Islamabad reacted to the Indian move calmly that was reflected in the official foreign office statement when it said the Pakistan government would continue to work for the de-escalation of tension and complete normalization of diplomatic relations between the two countries. It was the same policy that Pakistan had followed in December last when India had withdrawn its high commissioner from Islamabad, following a terrorist attack outside the Indian parliament building in New Delhi. Pakistan had not reciprocated it. But, Islamabad was left with no choice but respond proportionately when India had snapped air, road and rail links. That decision had been more to India's disadvantage economically than it meant for Pakistan in the economic terms. India has been vainly struggling hard for years to get Pakistan declared a terrorist state. New Delhi accentuated this campaign after the 9/11-terror attack. India failed again because of Pakistan's whole-hearted cooperation with the international coalition against international terrorism. Jaswant Singh's argument that for the sake of parity of representation between Pakistan and India, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi has been asked to return to Islamabad does not hold valid. The argument of diplomatic parity has come to the minister's mind after six months. Saturday's significant Indian diplomatic decision and considerably increased Indian shelling and firing along the Line of Control and working boundary over the past couple of days, resulting in loss of innocent lives, clearly establish that senior US official Christina Rocca's just-ended visit to India and Pakistan had little or no practical bearing on the Indian leadership to calm down. The trip failed to woo India from pursuing belligerence against Pakistan. Where is the American influence when it comes to urging India from engulfing the region into a devastating conflict? Has it really been exerted for de-escalation of heightened tension? many Pakistanis ask. In fact, the tension has gone up tremendously in the wake of Rocca's recent talks in New Delhi and Islamabad. This is the negative result of her visit. Washington is never inhibited in even arm-twisting of Pakistan whether it is the war against international terrorism or nuclear non-proliferation or any other issue of US interest. When India's bellicosity is unacceptable internationally, why isn't the international community working over time to avert another conflict in South Asia? Not only India but every country knows well that Pakistan, when pushed to the wall by New Delhi, would not hesitate to do anything to counter the aggression and safeguard its territory. The Musharraf government has done more than enough against terrorism as well as "Jehadis" and to expect from it more would be an exercise in futility. Before US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage dashes to the region in the next couple of weeks to work for de-escalation, India wants to further up the ante. The Indian leadership is under compulsion to do something against Pakistan because it is under attack at home for keeping the troops on borders for six long months without achieving anything and more so, when Pakistan hasn't been browbeaten by the amassing of the military power close to it. An agonizing miss in the emphasis of Rocca's visit was the real question - Kashmir dispute - that has kept the two South Asian nuclear rivals on warpath most of the time. How can there be peace in the region when the root-cause remains unattended? The Americans and other influential countries have to focus their attention on the core dispute between Pakistan and India if they sincerely want peace in South Asia. Rocca's visit and Armitage's impending trip to the region may produce temporary results, but would not bring about long lasting peace unless the real dispute is settled.