Pakistan Baffles the World Again

It was tout­ed as a diplo­mat­ic vic­to­ry, when Pak­istan PM Nawaz Sharif and India’s PM Naren­dra Modi met in Ufa in Rus­sia and agreed to exchange voice sam­ples to expe­dite the 26/11 tri­al. At the same time, Kash­mir was left out of the joint state­ment, high­light­ing a bilat­er­al com­mit­ment and focus to tack­le ter­ror – which has been a scourge on both sides of the Line of Con­trol. The Pak­istan Prime Min­is­ter signed on the dot­ted line, and shook hands with Naren­dra Modi for the whole world to see.

But, like many times in the past, it was too good to be true. Soon Pakistan’s Nation­al Secu­ri­ty Advi­sor Sar­taj Aziz held a press con­fer­ence call­ing the Modi-Sharif meet­ing ‘infor­mal’ adding that the joint state­ment was a ‘non-bind­ing agree­ment’. Aziz said that India must pro­vide more evi­dence for the 26/11 tri­al in Pak­istan, a day after the chief of the pros­e­cu­tion team in Pak­istan said that no fresh plea will be filed to acquire the voice sam­ple of 26/11 mas­ter­mind Zakir-Ur-Rehman Lakhvi – who is out on bail. Lakhvi’s lawyer Rizwan Abbasi said that there is no law in Pak­istan which can force his client to pro­vide a voice-sam­ple, where­as the Inves­ti­ga­tion for a Fair Tri­al Act passed in Pak­istan in 2013 gives the gov­ern­ment spe­cial pow­ers for sur­veil­lance and record­ing of ter­ror sus­pects.

This is a direct con­tra­dic­tion to the agree­ment Nawaz Sharif penned his sig­na­ture on with the full author­i­ty of the high­est polit­i­cal office of Pak­istan. Not only is this case a major embar­rass­ment for Pak­istan – but once again high­lights that con­trol over for­eign pol­i­cy does not ful­ly rest with the Pak­istan Prime Minister’s office. Clear­ly there was a push-back from the oppo­si­tion and the Pak­istani army against the stance Sharif took in the joint state­ment, which prompt­ed the reac­tion from the estab­lish­ment. But such a flip-flop erodes con­fi­dence in the author­i­ty of the Pak­istan PM’s office and any assur­ance that may come from there regard­ing bilat­er­al ties with India. Nawaz Sharif was even under­mined by defence experts from Pak­istan who appeared on Indi­an TV chan­nels – who said that India must not pay much atten­tion to the joint state­ment, reit­er­at­ing the same argu­ment that resolv­ing Kash­mir is the only way there can be peace between the two nations.

This is not the first time India has wit­nessed a u‑turn under the Sharif regime – the first time it was the 1999 Kargil War which broke out just over two months after Nawaz Sharif and for­mer Indi­an Prime
Min­is­ter Atal Bihari Vaj­pay­ee signed the Lahore Dec­la­ra­tion in Pak­istan to boost bilat­er­al ties and seek a peace­ful res­o­lu­tion of all out­stand­ing issues.

Pak­istan is cur­rent­ly pat­ting itself on the back for strength­en­ing ties with Chi­na and Rus­sia. These are sig­nif­i­cant achieve­ments, but the move with India has once again set the prece­dent that Pakistan’s polit­i­cal author­i­ty can eas­i­ly renege on bilat­er­al agree­ments if it feels pres­sure from oth­er insti­tu­tion­al author­i­ties, pri­mar­i­ly the mil­i­tary. This once again has sent out the mes­sage that there can only be effec­tive engage­ment on secu­ri­ty issues and counter-ter­ror­ism if Pakistan’s secu­ri­ty estab­lish­ment is on-board, if not gives a nod to the polit­i­cal author­i­ty. That is not a good sign for Pakistan’s infant democ­ra­cy. But beyond the for­eign pol­i­cy argu­ment, what’s more wor­ry­ing is that the Pak­istani gov­ern­ment has not tak­en the pub­lic out­cry against ter­ror­ism with­in its own coun­try that seri­ous­ly. Launch­ing mil­i­tary oper­a­tions near the bor­ders of Pak­istan is one thing, but the secu­ri­ty estab­lish­ment is ignor­ing the ter­ror units oper­at­ing and grow­ing in its heart­land. If Pak­istan repeat­ed­ly tells the world that it is a vic­tim of ter­ror and is fight­ing mon­sters on the front lines – it should help India bring one its biggest per­pe­tra­tors to jus­tice. It will be a big boost for Indo-Pak ties and will has­ten the waver­ing faith of the world in Pakistan’s com­mit­ment to fight ter­ror.