Editorial
While Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif speech at the UN General Assembly on Sept 26 won accolades at home for coming heavily on India for its injustices in Held Kashmir, it certainly created ripples within the Indian official as well as media circles. It was perhaps an unexpected posture that Nawaz Sharif resorted to keeping in view his past and present bonhomie with the respective Indian governments. In 2013 when Nawaz Sharif delivered his speech at the General Assembly, he hardly mentioned Kashmir for which he had to take heavy flak at home, especially from the establishment. This time however it seemed as if the speech was very well crafted and all stakeholder were taken on board in the process. Tariq Fatemi, of course appears to be the man behind it.
In 2013 another reason of Nawaz Sharif’s being kind to India on Kashmir was that soon after his meeting was planned with the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. But this time there was no such compulsion as India had already done enough to mutilate the talks environment by cancelling secretary level talks on the pretext that Pakistan’s high commissioner in India had met with the Hurryiat leaders. Pakistan was expecting some better treatment especially when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif decided to attend Modi’s swearing in ceremony. The purpose of course was to extend an olive branch to the new administration with a view to improving relations in the coming days. Thus, Prime Minister was probably advised to take a tough stand this time.
The Indian prime minister in his speech wished to have normal relations with Pakistan without making any mention of Kashmir. He also desired to have such relations free from terrorism. During Pervez Musharraf time the Indian complaints of “cross border” activities were well addressed and since then even India has not come up with any such accusations. Therefore, the Indian leadership ought to adopt a forward looking approach leaving behind the past acrimonies. One thing is for sure these wars and fighting are not taking both of us anywhere. Ostensibly, some of the Pakistan, India issues are complicated and difficult to resolve including the issue of Kashmir however a meaningful dialogue can certainly take us to the point where were we can find an amicable solution.
The recently held referendum in Scotland can be an option. But of course the Indian parliament will have to approve any such proposal like the British
parliament did beore holding of any such referendum. For the moment it seems next to impossible that the Indian parliament would do anything about it.
Now a few words of about dharnas against Nawaz Sharif government which continued to haunting the prime minister even in New York. The PAT and PTI were expecting to have around two, three hundred people outside the General Assembly, however it was even baffling for them when the crowd turned into thousands. One may disagree with the modus operandi of the dharna people to force the prime minister to resign; however this is for sure these dharnas have contributed a lot towards awakening of the civil society. Similarly they will certainly be remembered for giving a voice to the downtrodden and neglected class of Pakistan that has been bearing the brunt of injustices; lawlessness, corruption and family rule ever since the inception of this country.
The nexus of two-party system in Pakistan must come to an end now and perhaps that is the right moment when this goal can be achieved. If not know, then it would probably take years and years for somebody to again stand up and challenge the existing rotten system, which in no wise, can heal wounds of the suffering people therefore it needs to be consigned to the dustbin. If both Imran Khan and Dr. Tahirul Qadri can do it then surely it shall be a great service to this nation and country. One should hope that like the past so called saviors and messiahs these two would live up to the expectations of those who genuinely want to have a democratic system that could bring true peace and prosperity for them and for the generations to come.
