Pak media welcomes Indian PM’s ‘no war’ statement

In an editorial headlined ‘The right response’, the Dawn said the ‘with chest-thumping bravado still evident in some quarters on both sides of the border, statements designed to reduce the tension are a welcome sign of responsible statesmanship’.

According to the Daily Times, the Indian premier has ‘trimmed the sails’ of Indian response “probably after being put off” by the Hardline adopted by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who had threatened unilateral action if Pakistan did not hand over the terrorists New Delhi had demanded.

Noted Pakistani analyst Talat Masood said even as India has been intensifying diplomatic and military pressure on Pakistan since the Mumbai attacks, “it is encouraging that Islamabad and New Delhi are keeping diplomatic channels open”.

“Talks should continue to manage the crisis and put the peace process back on track,” he said.

Holding that the threat of war “unleashes forces that do not lend themselves to any discipline”, Daily Times said: “Neither the threatening state nor the one that is threatened ultimately knows how to put the genie back in the bottle once it is let out.”

“This is the moment for India and Pakistan to cooperate and sincerely investigate the Mumbai attack and follow up with steps that put an end to a dark chapter of hostility that has undermined all efforts at normalisation of relations for a decade,” the Daily Times said in an editorial ‘Cooperate, give proof’.

The Dawn said that “an honest appraisal of the Mumbai aftermath would reveal a missed opportunity so far in Pakistan”.

The Mumbai attacks were an “escalation in tactics” by terrorists to put pressure on the Pakistan-India peace process. “With the composite dialogue put on hold by India, the terrorists have already partially achieved their goal,” the Dawn said.

It warned that even as the militants went for “India’s economic jugular”, “what’s to stop them from upping the ante in Pakistani cities next?”

“Unfortunately, Indian pressure makes Pakistanis forget the real problem,’ Dawn said, pointing to what the British journal The Economist had written on the subject: ‘If Pakistan’s leaders had ever united against Islamist militancy as they have against India over the past three weeks, their country would not be the violent mess that it is.’

“Tough words for us to swallow perhaps, but nevertheless true,” Dawn said.

Masood wrote in the Daily Times that “In all probability, tensions will not be allowed boil over as both governments realise the horrendous consequences of escalation in a nuclear environment. Besides, India is set on an upward economic curve, and its economy would receive a serious setback”.

Another analyst Nasim Zehra said India “needs to adopt a more constructive attitude in dealing with the post-Mumbai crisis”. “There is no international ‘browbeating’ route that will yield any results for India,” she wrote in an article in The News.