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India seeks resumption of talks with Pakistan

	April 07, 2008

PM may visit Islamabad



With the new Government taking over in Islamabad, India last week asked for an early resumption of the composite dialogue process that was stalled due to the political developments in Pakistan. In a telephonic conversation with his Pakistani counterpart, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, on April 2, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee discussed the possibilities of fixing a date for a meeting to review the last round of the composite dialogue process. “We will review it at an early date,” said Mukherjee who also congratulated Qureshi for taking over as Pakistan’s new Foreign Minister. Qureshi, according to a statement issued by the Pakistan Foreign Ministry, also talked to Mukherjee about the “need and importance of peace and stability in the region for the common benefit of the peoples of the two countries.” Qureshi in a television interview said that Pakistan wants ties with India and that there are “signals of reciprocity” from the other side.



Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon is expected to go to Islamabad this month to review the progress made in the fourth round of the composite dialogue, which ended in October last year. This will be followed by a visit by Mukherjee to Islamabad in May-June when the fifth round of the process is also likely to be announced. A visit by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the Pakistan capital is also pending. He had put it off before the Pakistan National Assembly poll indicating that he would honour his commitment to return President Musharraf’s visit to India only after an elected Government is in place there. Soon after Yousuf Raza Gillani was sworn in as Pakistan’s new Prime Minister, Dr. Singh spoke to him on phone and also wrote to him congratulating him on his election and expressing the hope that Indo-Pak relations would evolve to become “best ever” in their history.



Last month, the PPP Co-chairman, Asif Ali Zardari, struck a positive note on Indo-Pak relations. He said: “There is no conflict between India and Pakistan seeking to improve their trade and people-to-people contacts and at the same time holding their respective positions on Kashmir”. He was willing to keep aside the Kashmir issue for the sake of improving their ties, saying this conflict should not be hostage to good relations.





The newly appointed Information Minister and PPP leader, Sherry Rahman, has also said, the new Government “wants to carry forward the peace process and CBMs on Kashmir.” She said that it was the Benazir Bhutt Government in 1988 which initiated the peace process between the two countries. There will be movement forward on that. “Pakistan’s new Government is thinking of a bold initiative on Kashmir, which would have some attractive inputs”, she said, adding that no violent means could resolve the conflict. She promised to work for the opening of new areas of communication between the peoples of Jammu and Kashmir.





Mehbooba, Qayoom seek free movement of Kashmiris

Senior leaders of the mainstream political parties from Jammu and Kashmir have had meetings with top leaders of different Pakistan political parties on the sidelines of the two-day Pugwash Conference to discuss the Kashmir issue that concluded in Islamabad on March 30. The J&K leaders included the presidents of ruling PDP and the opposition National Conference, Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah, respectively. While the separatist leadership stayed away from the Pugwash meet. Mehbooba Mufti held meetings with the Co-chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party, Asif Ali Zardari, and the Muslim Conference patriarch, Sardar Abdul Qayoom Khan, on March 31 and discussed the political and economic issues concerning the two parts of Jammu and Kashmir.

In an hour-long meeting Mehbooba Mufti and Qayoom Khan resolved to press for the speedy implementation of the J and K specific cross-LoC confidence building measures including facilitation of a free movement of people and goods across the two sides through all the traditional routes. They said the Governments in New Delhi and Islamabad must, without any further wait, remove the impediments delaying trade through the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad Road.



Mehbooba Mufti asked the new Government in Islamabad to continue with President Pervez Musharraf’s Kashmir policy that had laid concrete foundations for a peaceful settlement of the issue. Speaking at a seminar on “The Peace Process and Kashmir issue” organized by the South Asian Free Media Association [SAFMA] in Islamabad on April 1, she said Musharraf had crossed various tedious obstacles on the Kashmir issue which other leaders could not have normally done because of political compulsions. She said the confidence-building measures initiated by the Musharraf and Manmohan Singh Governments have had a discernible impact on the ground situation and the people’s psyche and this momentum should not be lost. In this context, she proposed the setting up of a regional council comprising members of the Legislative Assemblies of both parts of Kashmir for settling the dispute.



CPI[M] resolution – autonomy for Kashmir

The CPI[M] has adopted a definite line on the Kashmir issue. The party in a resolution passed at its congress in Coimbatore called for conferment of autonomy in J&K to solve the problem there. A close reading of the resolution suggests that the CPM wants restoration and implementation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution both in letter and in spirit. The CPI(M) is against vivisection of the state into three units, as proposed by some political outfits, but wants the identity of the three regions – the Valley, Jammu and Ladakh – protected by all means.



Exchange of lists of prisoners

While Indian national Sarabjit Singh waits in a Lahore jail cell whether there would be a last-minute miracle to save him from the gallows, Pakistan has handed over a list of 53 Indian civilian prisoners and 410 fishermen in a move aimed at expediting the release of Indians who have completed their sentences in Pakistan. It has also identified 26 juvenile fishermen who are in custody in Pakistan. In turn, India has provided a list of over 100 civilian Pakistani prisoners and 14 fishermen who are in jail in India.



The lists were exchanged on Monday at the behest of a joint Indo-Pakistan judicial committee set up last week to look into the condition of prisoners jailed in both countries. The eight-member committee with four retired senior judges each from India and Pakistan held its first meeting in New Delhi on Feb 26 to discuss the ways ahead and sought early release of those who had already served their sentences.



Pakistan claims to have released 2637 prisoners, including fishermen over the last four years. In August last year, India released 24 Pakistani prisoners and 48 fishermen while Pakistan freed 35 Indian prisoners and 100 fishermen.



The former Pakistan Minister and a member of the UN Human Rights Council, Ansar Burney, visited the village of Sarabjit Singh, Bhikhiwind in Punjab, on April 2 where he met the family of the man awaiting the execution of death sentence in a Lahore jail on charges of spying and bombing. He called on Sarabjit Singh’s sister, Dalbir Kaur, who has launched a campaign for his release, his wife, Sukhpreet Kaur, and their two daughters to assure them that he would continue his fight to save the life of Sarabjit. His wife provided him with documents carrying proof that Sarabjit’s was a case of mistaken identity. Her husband was being punished on the assumption that he was Manjit Singh, she added. The documents included a voters’ list, a driving licence, and bank passbooks.



Release of Pak film in India – first in 40 years

After a gap of 40 years, a Pakistani film, Khuda Ke Liye [For the Sake of God] has been released commercially in India. The film was released in 110 cinema halls across India, marking the beginning of more exchange of films between the two countries.



The Indo-Pak cinematic exchange has picked up in recent times, with commercial movies such as Goal, Race and Taare Zameen Par releasing in Pakistan. Observers say, for the two countries whose people are so curious about each other, and who have spent practically all the six decades of their independent existence using surreptitious ways to enjoy each other’s arts and music, this is a moment to reconsider the absurdity of the curbs.



In the last few years, particularly since India’s 2004 cricket tour of Pakistan, people-to-people contact has been largely disentangled from bilateral ties at the official level. Restrictions on cross-border travel have been eased, and a familiarity with the other country has been enhanced by extensive media focus.