{"id":3838,"date":"2018-12-08T06:07:31","date_gmt":"2018-12-08T06:07:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wakilsahab.in\/news\/?p=3838"},"modified":"2018-12-08T06:07:31","modified_gmt":"2018-12-08T06:07:31","slug":"facing-donald-trump-attacks-pakistan-military-seeks-peace-with-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wakilsahab.in\/news\/facing-donald-trump-attacks-pakistan-military-seeks-peace-with-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Facing Donald Trump attacks, Pakistan military seeks peace with India"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Source-\u00a0hindustantimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Pakistan\u2019s military is making an unusually strong effort to mend ties with arch-rival India, as top generals worry about a deteriorating economy amid fractious relations with US President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

Current and former Pakistani military officials have told Bloomberg that both a slowing economy and pressure from Beijing to improve ties with the West is prompting the shift on India. At the same time, they said, Pakistan is also wary of becoming too dependent on China after Trump cut some $2 billion in security aid.<\/p>\n

Among the proponents of a detente with India is Pakistan\u2019s powerful army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, who once served under an Indian general during a stint with a United Nations peacekeeping mission and is seen as more moderate than his predecessors. Entering his final year in office, Bajwa last week called a move to ease border controls with India for visiting Sikh pilgrims \u201ca step towards peace which our region needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The army chief has publicly supported China\u2019s Belt and Road Initiative, which has unleashed financing for more than $60 billion worth of projects — adding to the debt that has forced Pakistan to seek another International Monetary Fund bailout. But he is thought to be uneasy about Pakistan\u2019s over-reliance on Beijing, according to Western diplomats who asked not to be identified so they could speak freely about senior generals.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the outset of his term, General Bajwa was heavily inclined to end the state of \u2018No Peace, No War,\u2019 but recognized that shifting views inside the huge Pakistan army would take time,\u201d said Shuja Nawaz, author of a book on the armed forces and a former IMF official who is currently a distinguished fellow at the South Asia Center at the Atlantic Council in Washington. \u201cThis may be another incentive to launch a peace initiative.\u201d<\/p>\n

The military\u2019s press department didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, who surprised many by calling for talks with India in his July election victory speech, said last week his political party and the military are \u201call on one page\u201d in wanting to mend ties and resolve the conflict over the disputed region of Kashmir. His government is in the midst of negotiating Pakistan\u2019s 13th IMF bailout since the late 1980s.<\/p>\n

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Since taking office in August, Khan has sparred repeatedly with Trump. Just a few weeks ago they traded barbs after Trump said the U.S. no longer gives Pakistan billions of dollars because \u201cthey don\u2019t do a damn thing for us\u201d in fighting terrorism.So far, there\u2019s no indication that Pakistan\u2019s outreach will prompt Trump to reconsider aid money, which was cut due to insufficient efforts to deny extremist groups safe haven and freedom of movement. A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad declined to comment.<\/p>\n

But there are small signs that relations are improving. This week Trump sent Khan a letter asking for Pakistan\u2019s help in facilitating talks with the Taliban to end the 17-year war in neighbouring Afghanistan, a move welcomed in Pakistan. And Lieutenant General Kenneth McKenzie, nominee to become commander of U.S. Central Command overseeing Pakistan, said the military relationship between the countries was \u201cstrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important to remember that we are asking Pakistan to focus a significant fraction of their national power away from what they perceive to be an existential threat,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Fear of Indian dominance continues to dictate strategy in a military that has directly ruled Pakistan for almost half its 71-year history. Since partition, Pakistan has fought three major wars with its larger neighbour and both nations accused the other of supporting cross-border insurgencies.<\/p>\n

Pakistan\u2019s military is the most powerful organization in the country and has long been seen as one of the main obstacles to peace with India. Leaders in New Delhi have accused Pakistan\u2019s generals of stoking tensions with India in part to justify military spending that — along with debt servicing — consumes nearly 60 per cent of the annual budget.<\/p>\n

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Any detente with India would face deep skepticism that has endured since the British left the subcontinent in 1947. Both India and the U.S. see Pakistan as providing safe haven for terrorist groups and often bring up the fact that the leadership of Lashkar-e-Taiba, which carried out the gruesome Mumbai attack in 2008, still live freely in Pakistan.\u201cSaying that the military is on board suggests to the Indians that this time it will be different, since Pakistan\u2019s military and intelligence apparatus has been perceived as disruptors to formal rapprochement processes,\u201d said Shamila Chaudhary, a former White House and State Department official and now a fellow at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.<\/p>\n

Though with elections due in the first half of next year \u201cre-establishing dialogue with Pakistan absent any progress on justice for the Mumbai attacks or actions on terrorism is too much of a political football for India,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

India so far has dismissed Khan\u2019s efforts to mend ties and blasted his latest statement for an \u201cunwarranted reference\u201d to Kashmir. One serving army officer in Pakistan said the military was well aware New Delhi was unlikely to reciprocate before elections, but the olive branch was a diplomatic maneuver to win global goodwill.<\/p>\n

India views Pakistan\u2019s overtures as insincere, according to an Indian government official who asked not to be identified. Pakistan is simply seeking to convince the international community that it\u2019s genuinely working toward peace even though there\u2019s no actual movement on India\u2019s demands for more action to arrests terrorists, particularly those involved in the Mumbai attacks, the official said.<\/p>\n

While Khan appears sincere, he and Pakistan\u2019s generals must realize India won\u2019t reciprocate unless something is done about Lashkar-e-Taiba, according to Madiha Afzal, the author of \u2018Pakistan Under Siege\u2019 and a visiting fellow at The Brookings Institution in Washington.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an easy win for both Khan and the army,\u201d she said of the outreach to India. \u201cAnd one they can both agree on without changing the army\u2019s fundamentals vis-a-vis India.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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