India - Pakistan:   Conflicting Signals from Pakistan

After the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, there have been ample signs of an emboldened Islamabad opening the terror tap again in the Kashmir valley. Pakistan’s  abrupt refusal of permission to a private carrier to overfly its air space, for the Srinagar-Sharjah flight, only brought to the fore the hardening of attitudes, writes The Tribune. “That got amplified by Pakistan’s decision to rake up the Kashmir issue at the United Nations Security Council, forcing India to hit back strongly.

“Not much importance can be attached to the decision, after much delay, to allow the use of Pakistani territory for wheat from India to be sent to Afghans, who have been suffering from severe shortages of essential commodities. The gesture on the movement of aid and release of 20 fishermen is being attributed more to an attempt to dial down maritime tensions and avoid retribution, after Pakistan’s coast guard killed an Indian fisherman, than any keenness to repair ties. Pakistan remains invested in its bid to deny New Delhi — which is yet to recognise the Taliban government — any foothold in Kabul. It was made apparent when Pakistan’s NSA flatly turned down his Indian counterpart’s invitation for a meeting of regional powers on Afghanistan, and was quoted in media reports as saying that ‘a spoiler can’t be a peacemaker’.”

Kartarpur Sahib corridor opened

Despite this, India “has not shied away from keeping a window open for peace. Reconciliatory steps despite repeated provocations demonstrate a desire for normalisation of relations and easing of tensions. The reopening of the Kartarpur corridor puts the onus, fair and square, on Pakistan.”

Gurudwara Kartarpur Sahib opened for Sikh pilgrims Wednesday. Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for re-opening the Kartarpur corridor ahead of the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev.

The 4.7-km-long Kartarpur Sahib corridor that connects Dera Baba Nanak in Punjab with the holy Sikh shrine in Narowal district of Pakistan Punjab, where Guru Nanak (founder of Sikhism) lived and died in the 16th century

The BJP is hoping get political gains  by getting credit in the coming election in Punjab. PM Modi  used the occasion of ‘Gurpurab’ or Guru Nanak ‘Jayanti’ (anniversary) Friday, to announce repeal of the three farm laws over which Punjab farmers have been agitating for more than one year.

‘Gurpurab’ is widely celebrated by the Sikh community residing in India and different parts of the world, as the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev. Guru Nanak was one of the ten celebrated Sikh gurus who helped in shaping Sikhism, and the day is marked with joy, laughter and festivities. This year, the auspicious day fell on November 19.

Is Kartarpur Sahib Pakistan peace overture?

Significantly, Pakistan had said a fortnight ago it was ready to accept Sikh pilgrims to Kartarpur Sahib and requested India to open the corridor on its side that had been shut down when Covid hit last March.

So, speculates Jyoti Malhotra (senior consulting editor at ThePrint) ‘is Pakistan signaling a peace overture with the move? Remember that only a week ago, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan had agreed that wheat consignments for Afghanistan would be allowed overland through Pakistani territory. That gesture, too, could not have happened without the powerful Pakistan military establishment being on board.”

But “even if the military is indeed making such an overture, what is its motive? Some astute political observers say the Pakistanis are overstretched on the Afghanistan front and they badly need some let up…….

“It is no longer a secret in Pakistan that Imran Khan, a protégé of the military establishment, is running afoul of his mentors, those who put him on the prime minister’s chair in 2018…..”

W̆hy Imran Khan has lost military’s confidence: Malhotra identifies “three reasons why Imran Khan may no longer be the military’s charmed favourite he once was in 2018. The first is the deep crisis in the Pakistan economy  According to the World Bank, Pakistan is on the list of top ten economies with the largest foreign debt. Its gross external financing requirement is $23.6 billion for the current year and another $28 billion for the coming year. In June, as Covid swept the region, the economy contracted for the first time in 68 years.

“Second, while Pakistan’s assiduous cultivation of the Taliban has ensured it primacy of place in Kabul and the regime’s interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani has brokered a deal between the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terror group and the Pakistan government, the fact remains that  Afghanistan  is in the middle of its own economic catastrophe and Pakistan is unable to help it.

“Third, the political scene in Pakistan is heating up, even though elections are not due until 2023…..”

All Neighbours Article