Indo-Pak Kashmir bus service talks fail,Indian Subcontinent, News Analysis, India News Online

The first technical discussions on the proposed Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service concluded on Dec. 8 without much progress. While India did show some flexibility by dropping its insistence on visas, Pakistan’s position on travel documents remained unchanged. External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh told the Lok Sabha that there were “some hitches” in the link, which he hoped would be resolved through official level talks and then addressed at a political level.

India made a new offer for the use of entry permits along with passports instead of visas but Pakistan rejected it insisting on just State subject certificate as travel document, a practice which existed till 1953. Local district officials can issue this certificate. A joint Press statement issued on Dec. 8 said that ideas were exchanged on all aspects relating to operationalisation of the bus service and both countries agreed to continue discussions at the next meeting to be held at mutually agreed dates.

For India, sources said, passports will have to remain as the basic identity document while the Pakistani side has ruled that out, maintaining that Jammu and Kashmir is “disputed territory”. Further, Pakistan has insisted that the bus service must only be restricted to Kashmiris while India is keen that it be open to all citizens. Islamabad also argued that the entry permit suggested by India was no different from a visa as people would have to travel to respective High Commissions in New Delhi or Islamabad for the document.

Pakistan’s refusal, India believes, is due to several reasons. Despite statements to the contrary, Pakistan doesn’t rally want to encourage popular contact between the two countries. Greater access to Pak-occupied Kashmir (PoK) runs the risk of exposing the myth of “azadi” there. It’s a message that came out clearly during the recent visits by Indian journalists. Pakistan is also silent on another Indian offer to designate points on the Line of Control (LoC) for family meetings. Clearly Pakistan would rather keep PoK and J&K apart from each other. This, the proposal suggests, can be an interim arrangement to help Kashmir.

The Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service, along with other similar routes, Jammu-Sialkot and Kargil-Skardu, is close to the hearts of the Kashmiris. It was something that the separatist alliance Hurriyat told Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz of popular support to the bus service. That Pakistan did not really expect any progress in these talks was clear from the composition of its delegation. While India fielded a large technical delegation, led by a Joint Secretary in the Transport Ministry with officials from the J&K Government, the External Affairs Ministry and the Ministry of Home Affairs as well, Pakistan sent only a three-member team headed by a senior official in the Foreign Office.

India is not ready to compromise on passports because that is the basic identifying document for international travel. Besides, the bus service would be open to all Indian citizens, so passports are must. Pakistan, on the other hand, wants to confine the proposed service to Kashmiris only, travelling only with local documents. India believes the documents issue is merely a cover for a larger problem with Pakistan: that it is chary of promoting people-to-people contacts and wants to leverage commercial and popular measures with “resolution” of the Kashmir problem. During last week’s talks on the Khokhrapar-Munabao rail route, Indian officials said they encountered a similar intransigency by Pakistan. Despite an evident Indian readiness to go ahead with the service, Pakistan said it wasn’t sure whether it could get the tracks upgraded in time.

More meetings soon

The bus service may take a while and a resolution to the Jammu and Kashmir issue may take even longer. But, the Indo-Pak peace process continues with slow but sure progress. This week will see a slew of meetings between the two countries to address outstanding issues. On Dec. 13-14, narcotics control authorities will meet to put the final touches to a Memorandum of Understanding on fighting trafficking together.

Experts from both countries will also meet in Islamabad this week to discuss issues on nuclear and conventional confidence-building measures. It is expected that both sides will finalise a draft agreement on notification of ballistic missile tests. On Dec 14-15 also, the two sides will meet to take stock of the boundary pillars at Sir Creek.

The previous round of talks between delegations from the Indian Narcotics Control Bureau and the Pakistani Anti Narcotics Force (ANF) were held in June. The discussions had first been proposed as a part of the CBMs suggested during bilateral talks on February 18. According to official sources, measures have been suggested to share intelligence on various gangs and cartels operating across the border.

Both India and Pakistan figure in the routes used by drug traffickers from South East Asia. Pakistan is currently grappling with its multi-million dollar domestic narcotics manufacture and trade, and has been trying to regulate poppy cultivation in its western provinces. Poppy extracts are pushed across into Afghanistan or to other neighbouring countries. The volume of illegal trade between India and Pakistan is estimated at $ 2 billion.

Another area of continuing differences is the Baglihar dam project in Jammu and Kashmir, the construction of which, Pakistan alleges, is a violation of the Indus Waters Treaty. Islamabad has indicated that it would approach the World Bank for the appointment of a neutral expert to settle the Baglihar dam dispute with India if the latter does not agree to hold a meeting in mid-December to settle the matter bilaterally. The Ministry of Water and Power is already preparing the case for the World Bank’s intervention under Article IX of the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, it is learnt. Pakistan’s acting Foreign Secretary, Shafwat Saeed, also called Indian High Commissioner Shiv Shankar Menon to the Foreign Ministry and told him categorically that Pakistan would not wait for the meeting beyond mid-December, sources said.

India, for its part, has renewed its demand for Pakistan to reciprocate its gesture and grant India the most favoured nation (MFN) status. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told the Rajya Sabha on December 9 that his government has told Pakistan that normalization of economic relations between the two countries must include extending the MFN status to India. He said, the transshipment of goods to Afghanistan via Pakistan and an Afghan-India oil pipeline through Pakistan have also been discussed with Islamabad.

Another statement by Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee in Parliament shows that India is not impressed by Pakistan’s assurances that it has put a stop to its support to terrorists and wound up their infrastructure. Mukherjee told the House on December 8 that as many as 67 terrorist training camps and 37 launch pads were still operational in Pakistan and PoK. “There is no lack of efforts to infiltrate into Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.

External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh has said Pakistan’s contradictory statements will not derail the ongoing dialogue. He told the Lok Sabha on December 8 that the atmosphere between India and Pakistan has shown considerable improvement, though from time to time, statements from Pakistan had sounded a “discordant note”. He added, however, that New Delhi would not be deflected by “transient developments and often contradictory pronouncements from the other side of the border”. He said India’s confidence in taking the dialogue process forward with Pakistan was reflected in the number of confidence-building Measures(CBMs) that it has put on the table. “We have offered Pakistan 72 CBMs for them to study”.

Some of these issues may come up when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visits Pakistan early next year. The Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Shiv Shankar Menon said in Karachi the other day that Dr. Singh wishes to visit Pakistan next year. He told a meeting of Pakistan business leaders, India was considering offering 100 scholarships to Pakistani students to study in India and the Reserve Bank is considering whether to allow Indian banks to set up branches in Pakistan.

Indo-Pak Punjab bonhomie – Elahi’s visit

Meanwhile, a sense of solidarity and pre-Partition affection was created by the five-day visit of the Chief Minister of Western Punjab (Pakistan), Chaudhury Pervaiz Elahi, to the Indian side of Punjab at the invitation of Chief Minister, Captain Amarinder Singh. Elahi who headed a high-level delegation also visited Haryana and New Delhi where he had a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. In Punjab the highlight of his visit was the first ever inauguration of Indo-Pak Punjab Games in Patiala where athletes from both sides of the divided province participated. The ceremony was jointly inaugurated by the two Chief Ministers Elahi and Captain Amarinder Singh. Speaking on the occasion, Elahi announced that the next edition of the games will be held in Lahore next year. He said the recent sequence of events like, Indo-Pak Punjab Games and the World Punjabi Conference would act as a catalyst to further strengthen this peace initiative. Before leaving Chandigarh for New Delhi, he said on his return, he would strongly recommend to President Musharraf about starting an Amritsar-Lahore bus service, further relaxation of visa restriction to facilitate free exchange of visits between peoples of the two countries and exploration of the possibility of permitting trade across the border. He said his government intends to name the road from Wagah to Nankana Sahib after Guru Nanak Dev.

Musharraf’s foreign tour – seeks third party intervention

President Musharraf parroted his favourite theme of international intervention in Jammu and Kashmir when he visited London and Paris on his way home from a tour of Latin American countries and a short visit to Washington where he had a meeting with President Bush. In London, where he had hour-long talks with Prime Minister Tony Blair on December 6, he said in an interview that he would welcome Britain’s involvement in negotiations with India on Kashmir. “I would love Britain to play a role as an intermediary”, he said even while admitting that under the Simla Agreement, India and Pakistan had agreed to strict bilateral negotiations. Speaking at the International institute for Strategic Studies on “Global Challenges: The Role of Pakistan” on the concluding day of his two-day visit to Britain on December 7, he described Kashmir and Palestine as two key issues in which the West has to play a key role in resolving them. “We have to solve them and failure is no more an option with us. If we fail, we may not be forgiven by the future generation”, he said. Again in Paris, Gen. Musharraf declared that the current peace initiative with India will be the last bilateral effort by Pakistan and he would like multilateral efforts if it failed. He told newsmen after talks with Jacques Chirac on December 9 that he asked the French President to use his influence to encourage resolution of the Kashmir problem.

Reports from London however, say that during his talks with Tony Blair, the Pakistan President failed to secure Britain’s intermediary role in negotiations over Kashmir in the backdrop of the reports that he raised the issue of direct role for the UK in Indo-Pak talks. Tony Blair said before his luncheon meeting with President Musharraf, “We have all tried very hard over the years to help India and Pakistan and will continue to offer every support to ensure that relations between the two countries are not wholly-dominated by Kashmir”.

Earlier, in Washington on December 5, at a joint appearance with Musharraf President Bush expressed the hope that a solution will be found to the historically difficult problem of Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

While in Washington Gen. Musharraf, however, drew a blank on Pakistan’s quest for F-16 fighter planes. Although Bush lavished praize on Musharraf for his “determined” pursuit of the war on terror and even called him “a world leader”, he put on hold the much sought sale of F-16s. Secretary of State Colin Powell confirmed later that no decision was made at the Bush-Musharraf meeting. Pakistan, according to a recent issue of Jane’s Defence Weekly, is looking to finalise by mid-2005 a deal for the purchase of 18 to 25 of these multi-role fighter aircraft, costing around $25 million apiece.

Incidentally, in a security gaffe. a top-secret file containing elaborate security details of Gen. Musharraf’s movements during his two-day visit to Britain, plus confidential police and radio channels was found in a London street. The file was found by someone who handed it to the Mirror newspaper which, returned it to Scotland Yard. The Government has ordered an inquiry into how the security details of Gen. Musharraf, believed to be the world’s third most vulnerable terrorism target, was found on a London street.

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