ISLAMABAD: Recent escalation at the Line of Control (LoC) seems to have unearthed the goodwill Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is still enjoying with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi.
While the entire nation synced its voice against the baseless Indian propaganda and war-mongering, the prime minster has conveniently spared his Indian friend, whom he once hosted at his palatial Raiwind residence.
And Prime Minister Modi reciprocated too. Despite threatening Pakistan of dire consequences after Uri attack, he never mentioned his Pakistani counterpart once in his fiery speeches which, according to many analysts, were delivered to get maximum political leverage.
No doubt cooler heads must prevail to reduce the simmering tension, yet the peace overtures must not resemble weakness. The country’s chief executive must reflect the aspiration of voters who trusted in him their confidence, in 2013.
Sources told Daily Times the military establishment was not impressed the way Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif responded to the Indian threats. The average soldiers were equally wary of his body language and undertone. All they wanted was a tough commander-in-chief at the time when the soldiers were facing heavy artillery from other side of the LoC.
War is a luxury both India and Pakistan cannot afford. India upped the ante by claiming it had conducted a surgical strike to destroy several militant launch pads in Azad Kashmir. The armed forces of Pakistan rubbished the claim. The United Nations refused to corroborate the Indian fairytale as well.
On Friday the prime minister chaired a federal cabinet meeting, a day after the alleged surgical strikes by India.
“We will defend our homeland against any aggression. The entire nation is standing shoulder to shoulder with our armed forces,” he then stated. He termed Kashmir an unfinished agenda of Partition which, he said, could not be wished away through Indian atrocities.
Media reports suggested that Indian prime minister sent a secret message to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif through a trusted emissary. What did the message contain remained a mystery.
Heads of major political parties might ask the prime minister if he had any back-channel working between him and his Indian counterpart, when they all see him today. The prime minister has called an All Parties Conference (APC) to discuss the Indian aggression and Kashmir.
The two largest opposition parties – the Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) – have been accusing the prime minister of compromising the national interests by ‘endorsing’ Narendra Modi more than once.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari often called him “Modi Ka Yar” (a chum of Modi). Both the People’s Party and the PTI shared a common belief that Prime Minister Modi supervised the massacre of hundreds of Muslims in Gujarat when he was the chief minister in 2002. Under his watch a number of Muslim women were allegedly raped during the riots.
Despite well-aware of Mr Modi’s past, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif rushed to congratulate him when invited to attend his oath-taking ceremony, in New Delhi. He had been advised otherwise.
Not long ago an Indian billionaire Sajjan Jindal was instrumental in arranging an unprecedented meeting between the two prime ministers in Lahore. The Indian prime minister had a brief stopover in Lahore last year to ‘attend the wedding’ of Sharif’s granddaughter. The two chief executives had hugged each other at the airport before driving straight to Sharifs’ Raiwind residence.
In January, the Pathankot incident took place. It unearthed the bias and narrow-mindedness of Mr Jindal who in a series of tweets accused the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of masterminding the attack. Neither Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif nor any of his cronies responded to his baseless allegations. One wonders if Sharifs still maintain warm relations with Mr Jindal and his family.
At least, on three occasions Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif tried to appease Modi against the national aspirations. His visit to New Delhi at the oath taking ceremony, inviting Modi to his granddaughter’s wedding and signing a controversial Ufa declaration which had no mention of either Kashmir or Samjhota Express incident.
As tension at the LoC eclipsed domestic politics, the prime minister looks relaxed as if he already knew that escalation between India and Pakistan would soon wither away.
While bucking the soldiers up from his plushy drawing rooms, he has to take another important decision of appointing new army chief in the days to come.
His political career depends on how would he deal with Modi, Imran Khan and General Raheel Sharif.http://dailytimes.com.pk/islamabad/03-Oct-16/whats-happening-between-nawaz-and-modi
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