Over the top

–By Iqbal Khattak

India and Pakistan have finally set the date for meeting since they stopped talking to each other well over a year ago. They will meet on February 25 to discuss issues the two countries face, and Kashmir and water disputes are likely to figure out prominently at the foreign secretary-level talks in New Delhi.

India shut all channels of dialogues with archrival Pakistan to protest Mumbai attacks in November 2008 when gunmen launched coordinated attacks in the Indian city killing close to 200 people. The Indian government directly charged Pakistan with helping the attackers. The sole surviving attacker is a Pakistani citizen and Islamabad arrested a few others on charges of facilitating the attacks.

There has been a marked shift in New Delhi’s approach to the resumption of talks with Islamabad. The Indian government has been pressing that Pakistan should first dismantle terrorist networks and should not use “terrorism as tool of foreign policy.” Islamabad denies the charge and instead pleads it has been “victim of terrorism” itself. This clarification carries weightage. The Taliban-linked militancy has wrecked the country and Swat Valley alone will require around US$1 billion for its reconstruction.

US Secretary Defence Robert Gates was in the region last month and he visited both the Southasian nuclear-armed states and his one statement in India was relevant to the two countries. He cautioned that the “syndicate of terror” operating in the region is a threat that intends to provoke an India-Pakistan conflict and destabilize the region.

The two countries have enormous economic potentials to progress and make peoples live far better lives than they have now. Poverty will go away from the two countries and their peoples will not need to go to Gulf states for jobs. But we should start longing that will happen? It looks a distant dream if we look at the two governments’ willingness to forge deep political and economic relations.

My family was reluctant to see me go to India in 1996 to cover the Cricket World Cup matches forThe Frontier Post because my parents feared for my safety. However, I found that their worries were ill-founded. Then I had a chance to visit India again in 1999 when Pakistan cricket team was playing Test series after 10 years break on Indian soil. In New Delhi, an Indian sports journalist invited me and Qamar Ahmed, the famous BBC cricket journalist, to a lunch at his home. The journalist’s wife prepared some delicious Indian dishes and I still remember the achar (pickle) served with the lunch. When we were out of his apartment the Indian journalist began talking about something which you can find in both the countries.

“Now, intelligence sleuths will chase me like a bee for inviting Pakistanis to lunch at home,” the Indian journalist said shaking head in discomfort at what the two governments can do to their peoples. Qamar Ahmed told the Indian host: “It would be the same case for me if I invite you to my home in Pakistan.”

It was the same case with me. For one year I was kept under observation by Pakistani intelligence agencies after I interviewed the former Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in early 1999 and ex-Indian interior minister L. K. Advani when they invited both Pakistan and Indian cricket teams over a cup of tea during the Delhi Test match.

With this mindset the two governments treating its own peoples it is naïve to expect the new round of talks will pave the way for peace in the region. The two countries seem unlikely to resolve their disputes bilaterally, and without world powers’ involvement the two governments will continue to spend much of its resources on its military rather than helping its poor.