Pak-India challenge at UN

WITH Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in New York this week for the 70th UN General Assembly session, there is an opportunity for some serious diplomacy to be undertaken. Unhappily, the one meeting that the world at large would have been hoping for — between Mr. Sharif and his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi — has not been scheduled, leaving perhaps only room for a scripted handshake.

Instead, the Pakistani prime minister is expected to use the occasion of his address to the UNGA to bring the global community’s attention to tensions along the Line of Control and Working Boundary and the broader Kashmir dispute.

He will have his work cut out for him.

While the outside world has been concerned by the persistent tensions along the LoC and Working Boundary, it is also keen to do a great deal of business with India, be it in terms of trade, investment or military contracts.

Moreover, the US-India Joint Declaration on Combating Terrorism, following the first ever US-India Strategic and Commercial Dialogue, indicated just what a tough sell Pakistan faces: while the two countries specifically called on Pakistan to bring the perpetrators of Mumbai attacks to justice, Kashmir was only mentioned in the context of the militant attack in Udhampur on Aug 5.

Mr. Sharif’s task will be further complicated by the memory of Ufa. The joint statement following the July prime ministerial meeting proved to be a foreign policy debacle and a public relations disaster for the PML-N government.

However, Ufa is not dead and the recent meeting of the directors general of the Pakistan Rangers and the Indian BSF proved that the two sides can in fact get work done.

How then does Mr. Sharif balance the need to put the Kashmir dispute front and center again – as demanded by the hawks domestically and supported by the security establishment – while also keeping the door open to dialogue with a reluctant Mr. Modi?

Thus far the Pakistani prime minister has not given much reason for confidence that he can pull off such a delicate balancing act. What is also disappointing is that there have been few ideas emanating from the political government on how to move the relationship forward.

Where there has been movement, it has seemingly been done in an ad hoc manner and with a view to doing whatever it takes to bring the Indian government around to talking. Ufa epitomised that careless thinking.

If there is to be no forward movement in the bilateral relationship in New York, what next? Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry has already outlined the substance of Prime Minister Sharif’s speech at the UNGA on Wednesday: reiterating Pakistan’s commitment to regional peace and briefing the world community on the situation along the LoC and Working Boundary.

That though does not suggest there is much thought being given to, for example, resurrecting the cancelled NSA talks or working on the other steps in the Ufa road map. Unless the political leadership shows some initiative, Pak-India ties could be set to drift for a while.