Dr. Veda Pratap Vaidik
The content of the replay from the new Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shahbaz Sharif to Prime Minister, Narendra Modi’s congratulatory letter indicates that the bilateral communication that was stalled between the two neighbours for the past three years is likely to resume soon. In his letter to Shahbaz Prime Minister Modi had expressed his desire to restore friendly relationship between the two nations that could help to promote an atmosphere of peace and stability in South Asia.
Shahbaz has gone one step further and said that both the countries should fight together against poverty and unemployment. It needs to be applauded that both the Prime Ministers expressed their desire to promote peace between the two countries, but they have certain compulsions. If they do not express it, the rivals will make their life miserable. That is why; in the reply to his Indian counterpart Shahbaz mentioned the issue of Kashmir and Narendra Modi in his letter highlighted the issue of terrorism. These are the two issues which vitiated the Indo-Pak relations.
When Imran Khan came to power, he had said that if India took one step forward to improve Indo-Pak relations, his country would advance two steps. But in 2019, Pakistan’s terror strike in Pulwama and India’s retaliatory airstrike in Balakot escalated tension between the two neighbors and with the abrogation of Article 370 the relations with our neighbor deteriorated further and almost reached the brim of a conflict. The mutual trade between the two countries has almost halted and these days there are no high commissioners in their respective high commissions.
It seems that Imran’s government had relinquished the path of diplomacy in 2019 and opted for a policy suitable to cheer the army. But this new government formed under the leadership of Shahbaz Sharif can do the job which no other government in Pakistan could do till date. This new government also seems to have the full support of the Army.
I have written in my earlier articles that whenever I met the Sharif brothers, I always felt Shahbaz more soft and courteous. Apart from this, his father Mohammad Sharif used to tell me that for many years, after partition, he used to go to his village Jati Umra in Amritsar every morning to bring laborers in buses. As Asif Zardari once said, likes every Pakistani, there was a Hindustan throbbing in him.
In 2014 , the then Pakistan Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif did not respond for couple of days to the invitation to Narendra Modi’s oath taking as prime Minister of India. Then I reached up to his senior colleague Sartaj Aziz and told him that it was on my suggestion the primes ministers of the neighbouring nations were invited for the oath taking ceremony and they also must come. Both of them came and attended the ceremony.
During my long meeting with the then Pak Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif in Islamabad in 2014, he wanted to know what initiatives should be taken to build a better relationship with our new Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. I wish to reiterate, we have a much better opportunity now and a new beginning can be initiated in the bilateral ties with our next-door neighbour.
*Dr. Vaidik is the President of the Indian Council of Foreign Policy
Dr. Vaidik is a widely travelled scholar-journalist. He has visited more than 80 countries on diplomatic and educationalmissions. Dr. Vaidik has won more than a dozen National and International awards for academic and journalistic excellence. He has been a member of several Advisory Committees of Government of India.
