Regional politics is increasingly becoming feverish. With Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the US, the civil and military leadership of Pakistan got together for an ‘extraordinary’ meeting. Key members of the cabinet – minus Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan – met at the GHQ with the top military brass to discuss key regional issues, including Afghanistan and the CPEC. The statements that came out of the meeting reflected the increasing regional tensions. After reaffirming commitment to the Afghan peace process and to building the CPEC, the meeting condemned the recent US drone strike in Pakistan that killed Mullah Mansour as a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and a threat to the Afghan peace process. The meeting also pledged that hostile intelligence agencies and their facilitators would not be allowed to destabilise the country. In his speech at the US Congress a day later, Modi expressed similar sentiments – making references to Pakistan and the militant groups allegedly operating within it, and blaming the country for terrorism. Modi’s tirade against Pakistan came days after Indian investigators gave the Pakistani state a clean chit over the Pathankot attacks. Apart from Modi’s speech, the joint statement by Modi and President Obama also called on Pakistan to bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai and Pathankot attacks to justice.
The irony of Modi raising the spectre of religious extremism aside, the Indian PM’s US visit was aimed at positioning India as a viable partner for the US against China and facilitate India’s entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group. Pakistan too is interested in joining the NSG, but our attempt to respond boldly to a hostile international environment is compromised by the presence of local and foreign militants within our borders. The drone attack on Mullah Mansour is certainly both an attack on Pakistan’s territorial sovereignty and the Afghan peace process, but the presence of the head of the Afghan Taliban in Pakistan has caused significant embarrassment – whether we admit it or not. Pakistan knows it must rely on Chinese support to bump up its regional position for now. The US is reportedly also sending a delegation to Pakistan this week to ease tensions, but a breakthrough is unlikely. Hawkish opinion is on the rise in all three countries. What India and the US need to recognise is that hypocritically and self-righteously portraying Pakistan as the only bad actor in the region is not going to do anyone any good. Pakistan needs to be able to forcefully present that reality and, for that to happen, dialogue – within the constitutional framework of the state – between the various stakeholders and groups of influence is of course important. Both the civilian and the military leadership will have to act together in a manner that leaves no room for the now quite familiar talk of institutional rifts in the country. Questions of internal and external security cannot become blurred at a time when Pakistan is once more locked in a turbulent relationship with its neighbours both to the east and the west.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/print/126707-Regional-scenario
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