We can’t let the India-Pakistan relationship be hostage to dispute:

We can’t let the India-Pakistan relationship be hostage to dispute:

Context

• Former Ambassador of Pakistan to the U.S. Husain Haqqani has launched South Asians Against Terrorism and for Human Rights (SAATH), condemning the “widening circle of repression” and  is trying to address mainstream extremist and terrorist organizations in Pakistan.

What is SAATH?

• South Asians Against Terrorism and for Human Rights (SAATH), is a platform where people could start asking questions that they are not allowed to ask otherwise.
• As hyper-nationalist discourse is being encouraged in Pakistan, especially in the media and it is done so by silencing dissent. Somebody has to start telling people to talk rationally, and the purpose of SAATH is to try and rekindle a rational discourse back to Pakistan.
• SAATH is not going to possibly affect day-to-day politics but it aims to affect the battle of ideas.

What are the issues SAATH deals with?

• The widening circle of repression of critical, dissenting voices to the state’s narrative have led to shrinking space for liberal, secular, progressive ideas and pluralism.
• There are constant threats to democracy and to nationalists in Balochistan, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa areas of Pakistan.
• NGOs, human rights defenders and individuals are being victimised. Major political parties are demonstrating an inability to prioritize protection of human rights and social justice.
• Attempts to mainstream extremist and terrorist organizations are a particularly dangerous development and a threat to the democratic polity.
• State support for, and tolerance of, groups considered terrorist by the rest of the world remains a serious concern.
• An unelected institution of state challenging the democratic mandate of the elected government, in keeping with a persistent pattern, continues to be a serious source of apprehension.
• To establish a true democracy in Pakistan, which is a multinational state, the federating units must be given not only maximum political autonomy but also control over their natural resources.

What does SAATH aims at?

• This forum recognizes that one of the reasons Pakistan’s democracy has remained tenuous is that while the Centre has denied rights to the provinces, the provinces have failed in the devolution of power to the local governments.

• Therefore, this forum demands that the provinces should activate the Provincial Finance Commissions and allocate maximum resources to the local governments.
• It also demands that the local governments should be given 25% of the royalty and the profits of natural resources exploited from their respective areas.
• Participants decided that Pakistan needs a new national narrative that is based on the consent of its people rather than on religious hatred, militarism and militancy.
• Participants of SAATH will set up two secretariats, one in Pakistan and the other abroad for the diaspora, to help wrestle the idea and identity of Pakistan away from the obscurantist forces.

What role is envisaged for other South Asian nations in SAATH?

• The problems in South Asian region are interlinked. Once there are enough Pakistanis onboard, then SAATH will focus on bringing Afghan, Indian, Sri Lankan, Bangladesh and Nepal on board as well.
• South Asia is the least integrated region in the world. Half of Europe’s trade is within Europe and half of ASEAN’s (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) is within ASEAN. In South Asia, intra-regional trade is only 5% of the total trade of the countries in the region, which is abysmal. SAATH will try focusing on the intra – regional trade in South Asian region.

Where does the road lead for India and Pakistan?

• India and Pakistan should not let their relationship be hostage to dispute. Their approach should be ‘let us become friends first and discuss things we disagree about later’.
• India can help change the psyche by constantly signalling to the Pakistani people that India has no conflict with them and make sure that the Pakistani people are no longer fooled by an establishment that no longer describes India and Pakistan as neighbours but as eternal enemies.

India – Pakistan

Historical Background

• Relations between India and Pakistan have been complex due to a number of historical and political events.
• Relations between the two states have been defined by the violent partition of British India in 1947, the Kashmir conflict and the numerous military conflicts fought between the two nations. Consequently, their relationship has been plagued by hostility and suspicion.
• Since the early 1980s, relations between the two nations soured particularly after the Siachen conflict, the intensification of Kashmir insurgency in 1989, Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests in 1998 and the 1999 Kargil war.

Convergence

Inbred hate

• The battle between India and Pakistan at the border may not have an immediate solution, but the battle in our minds can be solved if we let go of the dogmas and accept each other as fellow human beings

Trade

• One of the key areas where the relationship can actually be mended is trade. The reason being a tremendous potential for trade between both the nations
• Once the economic relations are strengthened, there will be no chance of war, because even enemies turn into friends due to trading.
• The trade volume between the two countries is very low, and this has to be enhanced. The two countries should move forward, and the peace process can flourish through the economic corridor
• The trade volume between Pakistan and India was $2.4 billion, Pakistan’s exports to India amount to $402.7 million, or 1.6pc of its overall exports.

Easier on visas

• Lately, there have been instances where many people suffered due to rigidity and strict regulations on issuing visas. This is another area where both nations can improve that can further attract tourism in both nations

Divergence

• The year 2016 could go down as one of the worst for Indo-Pak ties as terror attacks by Pakistan-based groups stalled the peace process and India’s surgical strikes inside PoK followed by trading of heavy fire at the border raised fears of a large-scale conflict.
• The year began on a sordid note when on January 2, Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad militants stormed the Pathankot airbase in Punjab and killed seven security personnel before they were eliminated.
• The Pathankot attack was devastating for bilateral ties as it followed a brief but important visit to Lahore by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the occasion of the birthday of his counterpart Nawaz Sharif on December 25 last year
• India’s attitude began to harden in July, when Pakistan tried to gain diplomatic and political mileage out of popular protests in Indian-administered Kashmir.
• Modi government responded by refusing to condemn a devastating terrorist attack in the Pakistani city of Quetta in August.
• This was the first time; he also raised Pakistani human rights abuses in Balochistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir in his annual Independence Day speech on Aug. 15.