A timely gesture

WITH INDIA'S EXTENDING the ceasefire in Kashmir and Pakistan reciprocating the gesture, efforts by the two estranged countries to address the Kashmir issue have received a new qualitative thrust. The Pakistan military's latest initiative of announcing a limited but unconditional pull-back of the troops deployed on its side of the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir is obviously intended to signal Islamabad's political will to match India's actions on the ground. Coming as a sequel to India's considered decision to extend its unilateral ceasefire within Jammu and Kashmir, the welcome military gesture by Pakistan can, if implemented to the satisfaction of both countries, enhance their bilateral diplomatic ambience. It is of course too early to foresee how these apparently independent moves by India and Pakistan will encourage them to push for a final settlement of the fundamental dispute over Jammu and Kashmir. But there seems to be a nuanced shift in the official mood in both India and Pakistan towards exploring the scope for addressing the overall issue in a measured manner. This climate of opinion, if harnessed carefully, should set the stage for bilateral discussions on confidence-building measures on a range of issues including the avoidance of nuclear brinkmanship in a new milieu of goodwill. It bears repetition that India and Pakistan should capture the mystique of hope inherent in the present moment for reviving the process of bilateral engagement.

Pakistan has packaged its present decision as a follow-up on its recent pledge of observing ``maximum restraint'' along the LoC and not as a direct response to the Vajpayee administration's extension of its studied suspension of security operations against the Kashmiri separatist-militants. The regime of Pakistan's Chief Executive, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, has annotated its latest peace overture with the ``hope'' that India would suitably reciprocate it by ``de-inducting'' some of its military personnel engaged in combat duties for long against the Kashmiri separatists. From New Delhi's long-term perspective, what really matters is Islamabad's discernible diplomatic intention and not its political discourse over its gestures. Islamabad has also recalled that the new partial withdrawal of troops is actually the second move of its kind since Gen. Musharraf assumed power. He had ordered what turned out to be a low-key pullout or at least a less-heralded announcement of a scale-down of Pakistan's military personnel along the LoC in the very context of his coup in October 1999.

The crux of the current decision by Pakistan is its belief that this ``manifests'' a ``genuine desire to de-escalate the situation'' regarding the Kashmir dispute ``in order to facilitate the process of meaningful dialogue on the issue''. In a sense, the evolving context is reinforced by the Musharraf regime's recent affirmation of the validity of the Lahore process as also the other relevant agreements concerning India-Pakistan ties. The Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, has also noted with satisfaction at this time that ``relative peace has prevailed all along the LoC'' since his first offer last month of a truce in Jammu and Kashmir. It was significant that India's original Ramzan-related ceasefire was followed by Pakistan's categorical commitment to observing ``maximum restraint'' along the LoC over an unspecified time-span. It stands to reason that the ``relative peace'' in this sector, quite explosive until recently, is traceable as much to Pakistan's ``restraint'' as New Delhi's truce as a constructive aspect of the overall anti- insurgency agenda in Jammu and Kashmir. These new dynamics could help revive the Lahore process. So Islamabad's latest willingness to reduce its troop concentration along the LoC as also the ``line of actual contact'' cannot be interpreted with reference to the idea of a de-induction of Pakistan's military personnel under the U.N. resolutions of a bygone era.

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