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A Pakistani gesture

IN A SCENARIO of rising expectations, the best insurance against a slideback is the slow but steady step-by-step process adopted by India and Pakistan. The two neighbours are displaying a welcome maturity as they approach the evolving thaw in their bilateral relations. Except for striking the stray discordant note on Kashmir, addressed more to hardliners at home, the two countries have in the four weeks toned down the rhetoric and taken steps in different directions that have helped to markedly lower the heat in the subcontinent. They are doing more. On Wednesday, on the eve of Milad-un-Nabi, the Jamali Government imposed restrictions on the entry of the Jaish-e-Mohammed leader, Masood Azhar, into occupied Kashmir. As a confidence-building measure and as testimony to its faith in the nascent peace process, Pakistan could not have taken a more welcome step. One of the three militant leaders who secured freedom from Indian jails in a humiliating exchange for the lives of passengers of the Indian Airlines plane hijacked to Taliban-ruled Kandahar, his release has left a deep scar on the Indian psyche. The ban on his entry into PoK may not significantly cramp his anti-India activities, much less induce a change of heart in him or his terrorist organisation. But as a symbolic gesture of reconciliation from the Pakistan Government, it is undoubtedly promising.

The release of Indian fishermen and the crew of a cargo boat and the expressed eagerness to host the South Asian Federation games are forward looking and flow from the promise made by the Pakistan Prime Minister early this month. Pakistan needs, however, to do more to curb the jehadi organisations which are openly functioning in the country, raising funds, arms and followers and proclaiming that they are engaged in holy wars in over a dozen places around the world, including Kashmir, Palestine and Chechnya. Within a month of Masood Azhar's "victory" parade on his release in the passenger swap, Pervez Musharraf made a publicised visit to PoK and rubbished allegations that Pakistan was abetting cross-border terrorism. Two years later, under changed global circumstances, in January 2002 he promised a complete ban on infiltration of jehadi fighters into Kashmir. The banned outfits, however, reappeared under other names and their arrested leaders secured their release, casting doubts on the real intentions of the Musharraf Government. The latest action of the ban on the entry of Azhar into PoK perhaps carries a qualitatively different message, reinforcing reports that infiltration across the Line of Control has shown no significant increase despite the summer's easing of the passage across. The onus continues to remain on Pakistan to demonstrate through action that it no longer supports the militancy in Kashmir.

In the weeks ahead, the return of the High Commissioners and their staff and resumption of communication links will soon be followed hopefully by restoration of sporting contacts. Blueprints already exist of the so-called "road map" for the dialogue — the Defence Minister, George Fernandes, said it was being drawn up. The External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha, has pointed to the six-plus-two format as part of the composite dialogue agreed upon by the then Foreign Secretaries in November 1997 during the regime of Nawaz Sharif that culminated in the Lahore summit. That format was eminently pragmatic and would be most suited, updated if required, to the current step-by-step approach. Under it, technical committees comprising officials discussed six key points at issue — Wullar barrage, Siachen, Sir Creek, narco-terrorism, economic and commercial cooperation and people-to-people exchanges in different fields. The two crucial issues — one, confidence building measures (then in the context of the newly acquired nuclear arms) and second, Kashmir — were to be tackled at the higher level of Foreign Secretaries and the political leadership. There is no need to look elsewhere for a format to begin the promised dialogue.

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