The Hindu : Pak. rejects Sinha's `talk of pre-emption'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 04, 2003

International

International

Pak. rejects Sinha's `talk of pre-emption'

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD APRIL 3. The reported statement of the External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha, that ``India has a much better case to go for pre-emptive action'' against Pakistan than the United States in Iraq, has set the proverbial cat among the pigeons here. Pakistan, while expressing ``shock'' over the statement, asserted that any ``misadventure'' by India would be met with ``full force''.

The Pakistan Prime Minister, Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, told journalists that the people and the armed forces of Pakistan were well prepared to respond to any misadventure.

One of the factors exercising Pakistan vis-a-vis the Iraq war is the doctrine of pre-emptive strike and regime change. In the last few weeks, in articulating its stand on Iraq, Islamabad has been emphasising that it rejects the doctrine categorically.

Responding to a question by newsmen on Mr. Sinha's statement on `pre-emptive action', Mr. Jamali said that ``If they are thinking of pre-emptive action, Pakistan knows how to defend itself and respond to any misadventure''.

Separately, Pakistan's Foreign Minister, Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, expressed ``regret and amazement'' at Mr. Sinha's statement in an interview to a foreign news agency. Mr. Sinha was quoted as saying that India's position on pre-emptive strikes against Pakistan had been strengthened after the U.S.-led military intervention in Iraq had set a `useful precedent'.

Pre-emption was India's right which it could exercise against Pakistan, at a time of its choosing.

Mr. Kasuri said that while Pakistan rejected the ``doctrine of pre-emption'' its security was not based on mere legal doctrines.

India should not harbour any ``illusion'' of launching pre-emptive strikes. That would be a major miscalculation leading to grave consequences. Any aggression against Pakistan would receive a befitting response.

Mr. Kasuri, said such ``jingoistic statements were meant to please the BJP hard-liners, and would only promote tension and did not serve the cause of peace and prosperity in the region''.

He claimed that New Delhi had failed in its doctrine of `coercive diplomacy' in the recent past. It tried to browbeat Pakistan by mobilising its troops on the international border and on the LoC when a million soldiers remained in an eye-ball-to-eye-ball confrontation in the largest peace-time mobilisation since World War-II.

On the one hand, Mr. Sinha criticised the American and British pre-emptive attack in Iraq, on the other, he indulged in wishful thinking for using that precedent to be followed by India, Mr. Kasuri said.

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