01-05-2007, 07:47 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>2006: optimism and missed opportunities in India-Pakistan process </b>
ft
Iftikhar Gilani
Both countries have seemed so near and yet so far in capping issues that have kept them at loggerheads for nearly six decadesÂ
 Â
The year 2006 will go down in the history of Indo-Pak relations as a year of both optimism and missed opportunities. For the first time after years of bloodshed, both sides held sustentative talks and exchanged ideas to resolve the issue of Jammu and Kashmir.
The foreign secretaries of both courtiers, while kicking off the third round of the composite dialogue process in January 2006, committed themselves âto finding an amicable settlement to the Kashmir problemâ; they largely seem to have shunned their overtly traditional positions. In stark contrast to earlier talks where India would cut short any discussion on Jammu and Kashmir, in January 2006, perhaps for the first time after 1975, then-foreign secretary Shyam Saran asked Pakistan to present ideas and proposals. âWe are willing to look at whatever is put before us,â he had said.
Since then both sides have reportedly exchanged non-papers on the final settlement of the J&K issue. Though the contents of these papers are not known, highly placed sources say that there has been more convergence than ever before. While Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf calls for âjoint managementâ and sharing of sovereignty, India calls for âcooperative managementâ. Musharraf has now come up with the idea of âjoint supervisionâ.
Insiders believe that both leaders need only to sit down and find a word between âjoint supervisionâ and âcooperative managementâ and the problem is solved. It is therefore an irony that despite convergence, both governments are still far away from any solution.
The July bomb blasts in Mumbai put the brakes on the peace process and stalled talks but both sides continued to remain in touch through track-two diplomacy. Analysts in New Delhi admit that a great degree of flexibility on Jammu and Kashmir is linked to the efforts of track-two contacts, underway since 1995.
âIt was actually then Prime Minister Narasimha Rao who gave the go-ahead to have informal and back-channel talks with Pakistan after his famous statement on the eve of the Burkana Faso NAM summit that âsky is the limit for granting autonomy to Jammu and Kashmirâ,â says a Congress man who was close to Rao. âHe [Rao] realised the need to evolve some mechanism to remain in touch with Pakistan and also with pro-freedom groups in Kashmir.â
Not many people know that Rao was a factor in the constitution of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC). For the sake of propping up a political leadership to control factional militant commanders, he got five Kashmiri leaders Syed Ali Geelani, Abdul Gani Lone, Shabbir Ahmed Shah, Professor Abdul Gani Bhat and Maulana Abbas Ansari from various Indian jails and held them at a farm house on the outskirts of Delhi. The leaders were kept together for six months before their release in 1993 and later went on to form the APHC.
Track-two, however, gained momentum during Atal Bihari Vajpayeeâs tenure. It was his national security advisor Brajesh Mishra, and former RAW chief AS Dulat, who brought âconsistency and regularityâ to the process.Since the Congress-led UPA government came to power, they have continued the process and for the last two-and-half years the Prime Ministerâs envoy SK Lamba and Pakistanâs National Security Advisor Tariq Aziz have met several times in Dubai and Singapore.
A few months ago, the PMO sent a large contingent of policy-makers, intellectuals and strategic experts to Ireland to study the Good Friday agreement and its implementation on the ground. One among them, G Parthasarthy, former Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan and a known hard-liner, also believes now that the two countries have been trying to find common ground and indeed should. The Indian side seems to believe that while boundaries cannot be changed, they can be made âirrelevantâ. Insiders also say Manmohan and Musharraf are both agreed on this proposition.
An official paper on Indiaâs approach on Kashmir circulated here in the National Security Council (NSC) says that India and Pakistan do agree on one thing, which is that the LoC as status quo is not acceptable. âNevertheless, if we are to adopt a people-centric approach as opposed to a territory-centric approach, then whatever we can do to encourage the free-flow of people, goods and ideas across the LoC, whatever we can do to celebrate the cultural affinities whichlink the people across the LoC â all these steps are to be welcomed,â says the paper.
The paper talks at length about the concept of rendering the boundaries irrelevant and undertaking cooperative measures to deal with shared challenges such as energy security, management of water resources, tackling issues of environment degradation and disaster preparedness.
âIf J&K is located within these concentric circles of economic integration, underpinned by an expanding web of inter-dependencies and social and cultural cohesion, then we could certainly look forward to a solution which transcends current rigidities,â says the official paper.
On the future mechanism of governance in Jammu and Kashmir, the paper envisages to harmonise constitutions of both parts of the disputed state which also includes Gilgit. âPakistan should take measures to create truly representative institutions on its side of the LoC, not only in PoK [IHK], but also in Gilgit and Baltistan, so that we can begin to create crosss-LoC consultative (but not joint Counter Management) mechanisms between truly representative and self-governing institutions, to address shared challenges,â says the paper.
Indeed, the National Security Council (NSC) in Delhi, while analysing President Musharrafâs proposal on de-militarisation, advised the government not to reject outright the proposal. âIndia could make it a starting point to ask Pakistan to withdraw its troops from Skardu area adjacent to Kargil and Saltoro region near Siachen. In future negotiations, India should and will insist that the process of de-militarisation start from Ladakh and Kargil rather than from the Kashmir Valley,â says an insider.
An approach paper circulated by a Delhi-based think-tank also envisages the establishment of a high-powered âCouncil for Jammu and Kashmirâ jointly chaired by the heads of governments of India and Pakistan and includes high functionaries from India and Pakistan as well as from both sides of the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir.
The years 2006 also saw India getting actively involved in the affairs of AJK and Gilgit. Indian spokesmen officially spoke about Basha dam and commented on AJK elections describing them as a âfarceâ. According to India it has a duty to speak for the âfreedom, development, and constitutional guaranteesâ for the people of AJK and Gilgit.
The confidence-building process has also kept pace with the launch of a trans-border train connecting Munabao in Rajasthan and Khokrapar in Sindh and the launch of the Amritsar-Nankana Sahib bus service early this year. There are plans to further boost cross-border linkages by launching a Kargil-Skardu bus service and accelerating trade between the two countries.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
ft
Iftikhar Gilani
Both countries have seemed so near and yet so far in capping issues that have kept them at loggerheads for nearly six decadesÂ
 Â
The year 2006 will go down in the history of Indo-Pak relations as a year of both optimism and missed opportunities. For the first time after years of bloodshed, both sides held sustentative talks and exchanged ideas to resolve the issue of Jammu and Kashmir.
The foreign secretaries of both courtiers, while kicking off the third round of the composite dialogue process in January 2006, committed themselves âto finding an amicable settlement to the Kashmir problemâ; they largely seem to have shunned their overtly traditional positions. In stark contrast to earlier talks where India would cut short any discussion on Jammu and Kashmir, in January 2006, perhaps for the first time after 1975, then-foreign secretary Shyam Saran asked Pakistan to present ideas and proposals. âWe are willing to look at whatever is put before us,â he had said.
Since then both sides have reportedly exchanged non-papers on the final settlement of the J&K issue. Though the contents of these papers are not known, highly placed sources say that there has been more convergence than ever before. While Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf calls for âjoint managementâ and sharing of sovereignty, India calls for âcooperative managementâ. Musharraf has now come up with the idea of âjoint supervisionâ.
Insiders believe that both leaders need only to sit down and find a word between âjoint supervisionâ and âcooperative managementâ and the problem is solved. It is therefore an irony that despite convergence, both governments are still far away from any solution.
The July bomb blasts in Mumbai put the brakes on the peace process and stalled talks but both sides continued to remain in touch through track-two diplomacy. Analysts in New Delhi admit that a great degree of flexibility on Jammu and Kashmir is linked to the efforts of track-two contacts, underway since 1995.
âIt was actually then Prime Minister Narasimha Rao who gave the go-ahead to have informal and back-channel talks with Pakistan after his famous statement on the eve of the Burkana Faso NAM summit that âsky is the limit for granting autonomy to Jammu and Kashmirâ,â says a Congress man who was close to Rao. âHe [Rao] realised the need to evolve some mechanism to remain in touch with Pakistan and also with pro-freedom groups in Kashmir.â
Not many people know that Rao was a factor in the constitution of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC). For the sake of propping up a political leadership to control factional militant commanders, he got five Kashmiri leaders Syed Ali Geelani, Abdul Gani Lone, Shabbir Ahmed Shah, Professor Abdul Gani Bhat and Maulana Abbas Ansari from various Indian jails and held them at a farm house on the outskirts of Delhi. The leaders were kept together for six months before their release in 1993 and later went on to form the APHC.
Track-two, however, gained momentum during Atal Bihari Vajpayeeâs tenure. It was his national security advisor Brajesh Mishra, and former RAW chief AS Dulat, who brought âconsistency and regularityâ to the process.Since the Congress-led UPA government came to power, they have continued the process and for the last two-and-half years the Prime Ministerâs envoy SK Lamba and Pakistanâs National Security Advisor Tariq Aziz have met several times in Dubai and Singapore.
A few months ago, the PMO sent a large contingent of policy-makers, intellectuals and strategic experts to Ireland to study the Good Friday agreement and its implementation on the ground. One among them, G Parthasarthy, former Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan and a known hard-liner, also believes now that the two countries have been trying to find common ground and indeed should. The Indian side seems to believe that while boundaries cannot be changed, they can be made âirrelevantâ. Insiders also say Manmohan and Musharraf are both agreed on this proposition.
An official paper on Indiaâs approach on Kashmir circulated here in the National Security Council (NSC) says that India and Pakistan do agree on one thing, which is that the LoC as status quo is not acceptable. âNevertheless, if we are to adopt a people-centric approach as opposed to a territory-centric approach, then whatever we can do to encourage the free-flow of people, goods and ideas across the LoC, whatever we can do to celebrate the cultural affinities whichlink the people across the LoC â all these steps are to be welcomed,â says the paper.
The paper talks at length about the concept of rendering the boundaries irrelevant and undertaking cooperative measures to deal with shared challenges such as energy security, management of water resources, tackling issues of environment degradation and disaster preparedness.
âIf J&K is located within these concentric circles of economic integration, underpinned by an expanding web of inter-dependencies and social and cultural cohesion, then we could certainly look forward to a solution which transcends current rigidities,â says the official paper.
On the future mechanism of governance in Jammu and Kashmir, the paper envisages to harmonise constitutions of both parts of the disputed state which also includes Gilgit. âPakistan should take measures to create truly representative institutions on its side of the LoC, not only in PoK [IHK], but also in Gilgit and Baltistan, so that we can begin to create crosss-LoC consultative (but not joint Counter Management) mechanisms between truly representative and self-governing institutions, to address shared challenges,â says the paper.
Indeed, the National Security Council (NSC) in Delhi, while analysing President Musharrafâs proposal on de-militarisation, advised the government not to reject outright the proposal. âIndia could make it a starting point to ask Pakistan to withdraw its troops from Skardu area adjacent to Kargil and Saltoro region near Siachen. In future negotiations, India should and will insist that the process of de-militarisation start from Ladakh and Kargil rather than from the Kashmir Valley,â says an insider.
An approach paper circulated by a Delhi-based think-tank also envisages the establishment of a high-powered âCouncil for Jammu and Kashmirâ jointly chaired by the heads of governments of India and Pakistan and includes high functionaries from India and Pakistan as well as from both sides of the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir.
The years 2006 also saw India getting actively involved in the affairs of AJK and Gilgit. Indian spokesmen officially spoke about Basha dam and commented on AJK elections describing them as a âfarceâ. According to India it has a duty to speak for the âfreedom, development, and constitutional guaranteesâ for the people of AJK and Gilgit.
The confidence-building process has also kept pace with the launch of a trans-border train connecting Munabao in Rajasthan and Khokrapar in Sindh and the launch of the Amritsar-Nankana Sahib bus service early this year. There are plans to further boost cross-border linkages by launching a Kargil-Skardu bus service and accelerating trade between the two countries.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->