In the third week of January 2016, when Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval was in Paris, the Indian side had discreetly approached the Pakistanis and inquired whether his Pakistani counterpart Gen Nasir Janjua would be willing for a meeting in Paris. The Pakistani side had gently said no, noting that they were not yet prepared for another NSA-level meeting.
This puts things in perspective. Pakistan’s response towards reinvigorating the NSA-level dialogue is rather tepid. This is in contrast to a pro-active approach from the Indians.
Pakistan is under acute international pressure to come good on its numerous pledges to India that it won’t let its soil to be used for launching terror attacks against India.
None other than Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif himself has gone on record as conceding that Pathankot terror attack has negatively impacted the India-Pakistan peace process. But then it has been only words, words and words from Pakistan.
No Commitment, But Deviation Noticed
The next week will be crucial to find out if Pakistan is willing to walk its talk. One can expect some forward moment in Indo-Pak ties in the next ten days.
Abdul Basit, Pakistan’s envoy to India, gave an on-record-interview to an Indian TV channel last week. There was absolutely nothing new in the line adopted by the high commissioner of the land of the pure. There was no commitment whatsoever in the various assertions he made. Some major deviations were of course seen from the past. He was not involved, despite being a Pakistani, in any sort of virulent anti-India rhetoric, which was the first deviation.
Every question was inconclusively answered. He was very confident that the Foreign Secretary level talks will take place, but refrained from committing the time frame. It isn’t hard to guess that after all, the Army decides.
On the question of Mumbai attacks of November 2008 and the following failure to bring the Pakistan-based perpetrators to the book he, as a welcome change, indicated some gaps in the manner in which ‘both sides’ handled the issue in the aftermath of the attack. It was one of those rare moments when Pakistan acknowledged its own failings (juxtaposing these with the Indian failings as well).
Pak Envoy Trying to Shield Mumbai 2008 Suspect?
A more notable departure from the well known Pakistani tactics was that the Pakistani envoy acknowledged that this time both India and Pakistan were serious and sincere in their efforts to cooperate.
On being probed about the Mumbai attacks and Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhavi being on bail, Basit swiftly brought into the frame the trial and status of the accused in the Samjhauta Express incident.
On being stressed that all the accused in the Samjhauta incident were under trial and behind bars while Lakhvi, the prime accused and the mastermind in the 26/11 case was on bail, he was quick to mention that apart from Lakhvi six other accused were in jail and nothing has yet been proved in the court of law against Lakhvi.
Basit also tried to escape and evade the question of the current status of Azhar Masood and whether he was in custody. He simply commented more than once that he could not discuss the matter publicly. Who knows, he can be very well be in a 5 star hotel with handsome facilities.
Do Not Expect Pak Help in Pathankot Probe
On the Osama Bin Laden episode, especially finding him just next to the Army Cantonment, Abdul Basit seemed quite uncomfortable. For the first time he publicly acknowledged that it was absolutely a failure of the ISI and the CIA as they did not know that Osama was living there.
Through Basit’s interview one can only gather that not much can be expected from Pakistan in the Pathankot probe. Azhar Masood will eventually be set free. Basit, when asked whether the Pathankot probe will meet the same fate like the Mumbai attacks investigation did, said Pakistan must be supplied with supporting evidence for bringing the perpetrators to justice. Pakistan has been taking this line in the Mumbai attacks probe too.
Let us not forget that we are dealing with a country where citizens are lesser mortals compared to the agents of the state, who are immensely capable of inflicting a thousand cuts to bleed India – the agenda of its generals, the actual rulers of Pakistan.
(The writer is an independent journalist and strategic analyst who tweets @Kishkindha.)
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