Tuesday, Apr 29, 2003
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By C. Raja Mohan
In the first direct bilateral political contact at the highest level in more than a year, Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali called up Atal Behari Vajpayee and invited him to visit Pakistan. Mr. Jamali's move comes in response to Mr. Vajpayee's decision last week, during his visit to Srinagar, to extend the hand of friendship to Pakistan. Pakistan has been under growing pressure from the international community to respond positively to Mr. Vajpayee's initiative which has radically altered the tone and tenor of recent Indo-Pak. political discourse. A visit to Pakistan by Mr. Vajpayee in the next few months is no longer an outlandish proposition. If Pakistan agrees to end its opposition to normal trade relations with India, Mr. Vajpayee could soon be packing his bags to travel to Islamabad. In response to the invitation, Mr. Vajpayee is believed to have reminded Mr. Jamali of the agreement among the South Asian leaders in January 2002 to conclude a South Asian Preferential Trade Agreement(SAPTA) before the end of the year. Until now Pakistan has held up movement towards a trade liberalisation agreement in the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation(SAARC). India has been signaling in recent months that Mr. Vajpayee is willing to travel to Pakistan to attend a postponed SAARC summit if there are concrete economic agreements that the leaders could sign. Mr. Jamali, who took the initiative to call up Mr. Vajpayee, conveyed his appreciation of the statements by the Prime Minister in Srinagar and the two Houses of Parliament. The conversation lasted ten minutes. According to sources familiar with the conversation, the two leaders discussed ways of moving forward on the stalled bilateral relationship. Mr. Vajpayee, sources said, emphasised the importance of economic cooperation, cultural exchanges and people-to-people contacts between the two countries. The Prime Minister is also believed to have underlined the importance of reviving civil aviation links. Mr. Jamali stressed the importance of reviving sports contacts that had been suspended in recent months. The two Prime Ministers agreed to consider these measures as the first step towards a restoration of normal bilateral relations. Pakistani sources said Mr. Jamali's decision to call up Mr. Vajpayee tonight constitutes an adequate response to the Prime Minister's peace initiative last week. Mr. Jamali is also believed to have affirmed Pakistani opposition to terrorism. The Indian side, however, is likely to insist on seeing these words translated into deeds on the ground. Last summer, the Anglo-American pressure produced strong verbal commitments from Pakistan to end terrorism and helped defuse the military tensions between the two countries. This time around, New Delhi would want to see some credible actions on the part of the Pakistani establishment on ending its support to cross-border terrorism. Clearly there is more diplomatic activity in store between India, Pakistan and the United States as the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage, arrives in the region early next month and the political mood on Indo-Pak. relations gets upbeat.
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