Pakistan’s Diplomatic Overtures to India

With the new political government in place, Islamabad is making a mild gesture of reaching out to India. The recent fractured mandate to Pakistan’s political parties has given some lease of life to its people. Though the elections have been brazenly rigged. Former cricketer turned politician and Prime Minister Imran Khan who was incarcerated contested from behind the bars. His party Pakistan Tehrek-e-Insaf(PTI)was almost banned and its election sign seized. Yet his candidates contested as independents and managed to emerge victorious individually. And when taken together these candidates managed to emerge as a one block securing the highest number of seats. On the other side of the political spectrum Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan’s People’s party led by Bhutto-Zardari clans secured mandate in the select provinces falling  far short of the simple majority. This led them to join hands and form the weak coalition. It is pertinent to mention that Imran Khan had managed to become Prime Minister with the open support of the Pakistan Army and same military junta didn’t hesitate to pull out his carpet and sent him to prison when he could not prove useful to them. Now the Rawalpindi managed to organise the sham elections giving it a semblance of democracy and bringing two sworn political enemies PML-N and PPP together to form the government. Only the time will tell as to which way the political wind will blow in Pakistan. One thing is clear that the political governments in Pakistan are nothing but puppets of Rawalpindi and ISI that can make or break any political dispensation in Pakistan. This has been the tradition in Pakistan from its creation in 1947 after the partition of India. This new development is watched very closely in India and New Delhi has kept its fingers crossed. Since 2019 the two nations are not having their High Commissions in each other’s capitals. Pakistan had recalled its envoy from New Delhi following the neutralisation of the seditious Articles 370 and 35A that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019.Islamabad has tried to break the ice though in a low key affair as it has sent Saad Ahmed as the new Charge d’Affairs (CDA) at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi for a term of three years. Another step that Pakistan is taking to resume its Commission in India is its decision to celebrate the Pakistan’s National Day in New Delhi for the first time since 2019.It falls on 23rd March .as it was on this day the Lahore Resolution was adopted in 1949 by the Muslim League  for the creation of the independent  country for the Muslims. New Delhi is watching these developments very cautiously. There is no hurry from India to respond to this move by Pakistan and there seems to be policy decision that India will not respond to it till the election results are out after the Lok Sabha Elections. India has been clear in its policy decision towards Pakistan and that is terrorism and talks cannot go together. This period till poll results are out gives India a substantial time and diplomatic space to gauge the true intentions of Pakistan. India has been making it clear that it will not tolerate any interference in its internal affairs .Especially Jammu and Kashmir. Recently India’s representative at the United Nations. Anupama Singh had taken Pakistan head on for meddling in the internal affairs of Pakistan and asked it to look inside and deal with its destabilisation due to economic crisis. She also lambasted Pakistan for sheltering the UN banned terrorists on its soil. Moreover, Indian policy has become more sharp and decisive from 2014 and there is strong political undercurrent in India to retrieve the areas of Jammu and Kashmir from Pakistan that it had illegally annexed in 1947.Indian Parliament has passed a unanimous resolution on 22nd February in 1994to reclaim and liberate the Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (POJK) areas and terrorism emanating from Pakistan once for all. After May 2024 India-Pakistan relations will have a new template and that will be defined by internal and external security issues.