Opinion Let’s talk again

Pakistan appears to be preparing the ground for putting Indo-Pak peace talks on the fast track. Referring to the Mumbai terror attacks,Dawn reported Pakistan’s foreign office spokesman as saying on September 7: “India should not doubt our sincerity in handling this case. Instead of leveling allegations,they should provide us with concrete proof so that we could take this case forward in a meaningful way.” Another report in The News on September 11 added: “Interior minister Rehman Malik said India needs to give Pakistan a chance to investigate and stay away from allegations. Rehman urged India to respect Pakistani courts,saying,‘India said that their courts have forbidden to leak the information. “ An editorial in Daily Times on September 7 stated that talks are the only way out. “PM Yousaf Raza Gilani says a delay in the resumption of Indo-Pak talks only benefits the terrorists. His foreign minister,Shah Mehmood Qureshi,adds ‘a positive response from India was the key to resuming the composite dialogue process.’ Meanwhile,let us not kid ourselves that the terrorists’ gain because of lack of dialogue will be equally harmful to India and Pakistan. The truth is that the terrorists are located inside Pakistan. There is also the issue of Balochistan where Indian interference is mixing dangerously with the Baloch insurgency. Any balanced assessment would be that Pakistan may lose more if the dialogue with India doesn’t resume ‘on a new basis’. Former national security adviser Mehmud Ali Durrani has recommended [that since the two sides think terrorism is a common enemy,their security agencies should work together. The truth,however,is that terrorism is not considered a common enemy by the two countries. A recognition of commonality usually lays the ground for cooperation through normalisation.”

Learning from Lanka

Dawn reported on September 7: “Gilani said during his recent meeting in Libya,the Sri Lankan president,Mahinda Rajapaksa had told him there were indications that elements in Sri Lanka were linked to incidents of terrorism in Pakistan,including the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore.” An editorial in Daily Times on September 8 was informative: “Despite the fact that world cricket was reluctant to visit Pakistan,Sri Lanka had sent its national team on a tour to Pakistan. This was how Sri Lanka wanted the world to treat Pakistan.” The piece ended with: “Perhaps the most meaningful lesson for Pakistan to draw comes from the way Sri Lanka has dealt with the terrorism of LTTE. It tackled the long-term Indian involvement inside Sri Lanka on behalf of the nationalists of Tamil Nadu by ‘normalising’ its relations with New Delhi,signing a free-trade treaty with it,and then confronting an increasingly isolated LTTE and putting an end to it.”