Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Pakistan's dilemma: Comment.

Pakistan's dilemma
Dec 1, 2011, 12.00AM IST
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Following the friendly fire incident in which a Pakistani checkpost was hit by a Nato air strike - leading to the death of 24 soldiers - Islamabadhas reacted with outrage to what it perceives to be a violation of its territorial sovereignty. It has shut down supply lines to US bases across the Durand Line, ordered the Americans to terminate their drone operations from Shamsi airbase and pulled out of an upcoming international conference on Afghanistan.

Islamabad, however, should also use the occasion to introspect about what it has done to preserve its territorial sovereignty from armed jihadi groups such as the Haqqani network or theLashkar-e-Taiba, which have made neighbouring countries their targets. Thereby their sovereignty too is violated, and that is the fundamental problem preventing India, Pakistan and Afghanistan becoming friendly neighbours.
For example, in the case of the strike on the Pakistani checkpost, the Afghan version is that the shelling started from the Pakistani side. That's a familiar narrative in India. Since General Kayani took over from Musharraf, there have been frequent incidents of Pakistani shelling on the border.

That hardly indicates peaceful intent or respect for India's sovereignty, especially if the intention is to provide covering fire for pushing terrorists across. In the case of the current Pakistan-US spat, Islamabad stands isolated and has few options in hand. It's bound to restore Nato supplies after a while, since it's critically dependent on US aid.

Dropping out of the Afghanistan conference isn't of great significance, since Islamabad's participation in previous conferences hasn't delivered much. The game changer can come only if Pakistan's security services were to make that strategic shift in favour of peace.
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