Prime Minister Manmohan Singh must consider visiting Pakistan so that the progress made in backchannel negotiations on issues such as Jammu and Kashmir, Siachen and Sir Creek is not frittered away, according to Mr Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, a former foreign minister of Pakistan.
Replying to a question after delivering his lecture at the Indian Council of World Affairs, Mr Kasuri said (former) President Pervez Musharraf might not be around but many other “major actors” are, and India would do well to seize the consensus that exists in military and political circles in Pakistan that peace must be given another chance.
Would the Pakistan Army Chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, be willing to visit India, Mr Kasuri was asked immediately thereafter. “Yes, (it is) in the realm of possibility,” he replied. “When public opinion is ripe,” he added.
Mr Kasuri said exchange of military officers was discussed during backchannel talks that continued till late 2006, by when, in his estimation, both sides had come close to an agreed draft on the contours of a settlement on Kashmir, Siachen and Sir Creek.
He said the Pakistan Army supports dialogue with India and it was on board on the backchannel talks. It (the Pakistan Army) was “not an obstacle as you imagine it to be,” he said, adding that the Pakistan military was appropriately represented in the backchannel negotiations, which had the support of all stakeholders.
He said both Gen. Kayani and ISI chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha favoured peace talks with India.
He also said a majority of political parties in Pakistan supported a negotiated settlement. “If India shows flexibility, Pakistan will reciprocate in full measure,” Mr Kasuri asserted.
When Mr Kasuri demitted office, in 2007, India and Pakistan were discussing the modalities of joint management of Jammu and Kashmir in the backchannel negotiations. Both sides agreed that joint management was not an ideal solution, but it was the best under the circumstances. They had also agreed to monitor its implementation and review the issue 15 years later. The proposals included demilitarisation, joint management and self-governance, and it would have made the Line of Control irrelevant. Mr Kasuri indicated that Pakistan was open to strengthening the Joint Anti-Terror Mechanism, which last met in 2008.
“Let us not lose heart,” Mr Kasuri said when asked whether liberals in Pakistan have lost space to fundamentalists following the assassination of Pakistan Punjab governor Salman Taseer. Asked whether Pakistanis recognise India as a secular nation. he replied: “I have no inhibition in admitting (to it).” The India-Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline would have been “a good way to start” mutually beneficial cooperation and it was doable, Mr Kasuri said.