By Shafqat Ali
ISLAMABAD - An
upcoming Saarc summit has fallen victim to Pak-India tension, deepening the
shadows of conflict in a region which has the highest concentration of world’s
poor and where inter-state tussles have already caused much damage.
The key summit was to
be held in Islamabad from November 9 to 11 and until a few weeks ago, Pakistan
was expecting Indian Premier Narendra Modi to attend it.
Adviser to Prime
Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz confirmed postponement of the summit
yesterday, a day after India announced its boycott decision.
At the centre of the
ongoing row is the old-running dispute of Kashmir, where Indian forces have
intensified repression over the past three months and where 18 Indian soldiers
were killed in a recent attack.
India blamed the Uri
base attack on “militants from Pakistan” even before it started investigation.
Pakistan rejected the allegations, demanding an international probe into the
incident and alleging New Delhi of trying to divert attention from occupied
Kashmir.
Announcing Modi’s
decision, India’s external affairs ministry said there were other countries too
that had expressed reservations about participating in the 19th Saarc summit.
“India has conveyed to
current Saarc Chair Nepal that increasing cross-border terrorist attacks in the
region and growing interference in internal affairs of member states by one
country (Pakistan) have created an environment that is not conducive to the
successful holding of the summit,” it said.
Soon after, Bangladesh
said it was also pulling out. Afghanistan and Bhutan followed suit. Their
decision had only a symbolic value though – because, as per rules, if one state
decides not to participate in the summit, it is postponed anyway.
Adviser Sartaj Aziz
pointed out that it was not for the first time as India had earlier also caused
the summit to be postponed four times, as he dubbed the latest Indian boycott
as another attempt to deflect world attention from atrocities in India-held
Kashmir (IHK).
He said the summit -
despite postponement - had not been officially cancelled. Whenever the
conference takes place, it will be held in Pakistan, Aziz said.
However, reports from
Nepal suggested the Chair was seeking changing the venue to make it possible to
hold the moot somewhere else later.
Things between India
and Pakistan started going wrong three months ago after Indian forces
resorted to use of brutal force against Kashmiris protesting against the
killing of a young freedom fighter.
Meeting its historic
and diplomatic responsibility towards Kashmir state, Pakistan raised the voice
for Kashmiris – to the annoyance of India which blamed Pakistan of interfering
in its internal affairs and accusing it of fanning cross-border terrorism,
especially after Uri attack.
Islamabad denies any
involvement in attacks in India insisting it is itself is a victim of
terrorism. It has also launched a diplomatic campaign, urging the world to stop
India from ‘perpetrating terrorism’ on its soil.
The two countries also
clashed at the recently concluded UN General Assembly session and India asked
the world to isolate Pakistan, terming it a terrorist state.
Failing to intimidate
the nuclear neighbour through threats of military action, PM Modi a few days
ago challenged Pakistan to compete with it in a ‘war on poverty’. But the very
next day he threaten it with a water war, signalling that India could
unilaterally revoke the Indus Water Treaty.
Foreign Office
spokesman Nafeez Zakariya yesterday said, “India has a track record of impeding
Saarc process.” He said Indian atrocities had attracted world attention and
called the boycott a ‘desperate act’, .
“The major thrust of
Saarc activities is to uplift the socio-economic conditions of people of South
Asia... India’s negative attitude has had a direct bearing on the welfare and
betterment in this region, which is highly regrettable,” he said.
As most in the Indian
media dubbed the support of three other countries on Saarc moot boycott a
diplomatic victory, many on Pakistani side termed it a ‘no big deal’. Saner
voices on both sides however expressed regret on losing a golden chance for
normalisation and harming a platform which embodies hope for regional
collaboration.
Indian analyst G
Pramod Kumar said the boycott would have made some sense “had the countries
that supported India been Nepal, Maldives and Sri Lanka”, instead of those
which “eat out of India’s hands”.
Former Ambassador Fauzia
Nasreen said India had always delayed the dialogue process and used cheap
tactics to defame Pakistan. “India wants to convince the major world powers
about its seriousness for negotiations, but actually it halts any such
efforts,” she said.
Defence analyst
Maj-Gen (r) Mohammed Farooq said, “Pakistan should convince the international
community about mischievous attitude of the Indian leadership. Pakistan is a
nuclear power and it will not submit to Indian nefarious designs.”
Published in The Nation newspaper on
29-Sep-2016
No comments:
Post a Comment