Despite the long history of
Indian duplicity, PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif bent over backwards trying to
prove that he, more than anyone else, would like to work to improve relations
with India. And though he said this in an interview with CNN-IBN telecast on
Wednesday, the death of injured Pakistani prisoner Sanaullah within hours should
have prompted an equally vehement response from the PMLN chief. Sanaullah was
attacked with an axe in jail in India, where he was incarcerated, very soon
after the death of terrorist Sarabjit Singh, convicted criminal of the Samjhota
Express blast. That revenge killing once again illustrated how India reacted to
anything that happened to one of its operatives. Perhaps as much as the murder
of Sanaullah, Mian Nawaz should realise from the state honours accorded to a
terrorist like Sarabjit Singh, how little reciprocity the Indian establishment
accords to such sentiments as those expressed by Mian Nawaz.
Mian Nawaz has promised in the interview to set up a commission of inquiry into
the 1999 Kargil operation, as well as a probe into the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
While the first enquiry would look into the conduct of then COAS Gen (retd)
Pervez Musharraf, the second would revive something even the Indians seem to
have stopped paying lip service to, and which is used by India to launch an
attack on Pakistan whenever they want. That too showed Indian duplicity, for
despite insistence, indeed pleading, by Pakistan, India has refused to share the
results of its agencies’ own investigations, particularly the question of why
senior policeman Hemant Karkare was killed during the massacres. Mian Nawaz late
in the evening, in another interview, said that the Kashmir issue should be
resoled according to the wishes of the Kashmiri people.
However, what Mian Nawaz will do, once India refuse to do so, except lose his
rosy cheeked optimism, unbecoming of a possible third time prime minister
anyways, is unclear. Mian Nawaz should not indicate so readily his willingness
to fall in with the Indian agenda. As an ethnic Kashmiri, he should not be so
insouciant about the sufferings of the Kashmiri people, whose struggle even now
is continuing against the oppression of the Indian occupation. He should also
not exhibit this unseemly anxiety for Indian goodwill, especially when India has
yet to take any step showing it wants to reciprocate.