Pakistan Foreign Minister Gauhar Ayub Khan is understood to have proposed to his Indian counterpart, Inder Kumar Gujral the troop reduction on control line of Kashmir in his breakfast meeting in New Delhi on 9th April 1997. It is a new development in the history of Pakistan-India relations after the Foreign Secretaries level talks held last week in Delhi. Earlier, US Senator Tom Harkin was seen busy enough issuing statements emphasizing the need of rapprochement between India and On the last leg of his stay here, he said that Pakistan and India should reach some sort of agreement which bans nuclear testing and a system of workable mutual inspection under the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). He further disclosed that it was not Pakistan but India which refused to sign the CTBT. So far as the Jammu and Kashmir dispute is concerned the senator said that India should reciprocate the "bold overture" made by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. According to the senator, it is a new day in Pakistan and there is a renewed sense of optimism which needs to be urgently reciprocated. Meanwhile, on another occasion, US Ambassador to Pakistan Thomas Simons Jr has said that new ground realities of Pakistan demand that Pakistan can't survive merely on anti India propaganda, rather it has to survive on the basis of its ideology because according to him Pakistan should formulate its foreign policy keeping in view its interest not on emotional and romantic attitude. Criticizing the statement of US Ambassador in Pakistan, a local newspaper in its editorial has drawn the attention of the ambassador towards the "historical background" which led Pakistan to distrust India i.e. Hyderabad, Junagarh, Kashmir, East Pakistan issues etc, hence the distrust of India is but natural for Irrespective of the above mentioned comments by the newspaper, the question arises that the distrust of India for Pakistan is not a realist behavior, neither the all out love nor the all out hate for India is a realist approach. 

It is believed that the love hate relation between India and Pakistan may be the starting point but with the mutual resolve to end the distrust between the two. It would be totally different, some sources predict, when PM of India and Pakistan meet in Saarc Summit in May giving the impression of some sort of a tangible understanding regarding the complicated issues of Kashmir, Siachin and the nuclear capabilities and especially under the condition when America and China have reportedly urged Pakistan and India to open up a process of bilateral talks in an effort to hammer out their problems. 

This strategic initiative is rightly quoted as proof of the fact that Pakistan is serious about a peaceful settlement of outstanding issues with India. Now let us see what happens when the Prime Minister of India meets his Pakistani counterpart Mian Nawaz Sharif in Saarc Summit in May 97 in Mali - especially in the context of ongoing controversial problems like Kashmir in which the conflicting opinion from both sides emerged whether it is an international or a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan and if Kashmir issue is solved nothing like Siachin etc would remain unsolved between the two countries after the May summit of Saarc in Maldives.

Phone: + 92 42 6666404 - 6687827
 

 

 
E-mail: jrc@syberwurx.com