India - Pakistan: Pakistan Must Defang Itself for Peace to be Sustainable

STORIES, ANALYSES, EXPERT VIEWS

India - Pakistan: Pakistan Must Defang Itself for Peace to be Sustainable

As many experts have said, the olive branch extended by Pakistan Army Chief Bajwa to ‘bury the past’, is not for the first time  that such an initiative has been made.  A New York Times report of September 2018 claimed that Pakistani army chief, Gen Bajwa, had quietly reached out to Prime Minister Modi for talks. That means that the recent thaw in Indo-Pak relations is not a new event. Manmohan Singh and Pervez Musharraf for example, had agreed on the four-point formula to grant Kashmir relative autonomy.

Much water has flown down the Jhelum river with respect to Kashmir. PM Modi has  revoked Article 370 bringing the state firmly under Delhi’s grip now. And PM Imran Khan says relations with India are all about the centrality of the K question. But the K question is off the table as far as India is concerned, says analyst Sunil Sharan.

India, on its part, “wants Pakistan to first dismantle its jihadi culture” and stop cross border terrorism.

PM Imran, says Sharan  “must note that India does not believe the Kashmir question is central to its dispute with Pakistan. India believes that how religion has permeated all aspects of Pakistani society and the jihadi culture that it has spawned is the central question.”

For peace to be sustainable, Pakistan must “defang itself before he even talks about Kashmir….”


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