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Important not to live in the past but learn from it: Imran Khan’s message to India

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At interaction with Indian journalists, Pakistan PM Imran Khan says it’s not in his country’s interest to have its territory used for terrorism.

Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan invoked the past to explain the present, saying he had inherited the problem of those accused in the Mumbai attacks.

“It is not in Pakistan’s interest to have our territory used for terrorism outside,” Khan told visiting Indian journalists, pointing out again and again during the half-an-hour interaction that it was important “not to live in the past, but to learn from it. Otherwise we can be trapped by it”.

In the conversation with the journalists a day after the foundation stone-laying ceremony on the Kartarpur sahib corridor, Khan – the man India knows as friendly and charming – seemed restrained and careful in his replies to several questions on Mumbai masterminds like Hafiz Saeed and Zaki ur-Rehman Lakhvi as well as Dawood Ibrahim, said to be hiding in Pakistan since he fled after the Mumbai 1993 attacks.

Asked specifically about the status of Saeed, Khan said there are UN sanctions under Article 1267 on him. “There is already a clampdown. Rest we have inherited,” he said.

“On the one hand we have this case (on Hafiz Saeed) and the other is sub-judice,” Khan said.

Asked why he had raised the Kashmir issue at the Kartarpur Sahib foundation stone-laying ceremony Wednesday, the Pakistan prime minister defended himself by saying, “We are a political government. We make these one-sided gestures (to India) but then we see reports in the media on the situation in Kashmir. In Parliament we have to answer questions.”

When he visited India in 2015, Khan said, former prime minister Manmohan Singh had himself admitted that the Kashmir dispute was holding both India and Pakistan back and deterring progress.

“If we can resolve the Kashmir dispute, we can do anything. Unfortunately, whenever we try and do something, something associated with Kashmir happens,” he added.

The Pakistan PM refused to answer any questions put to him by ThePrint on whether “as a political leader” he could learn from history and whether he had a comment on why Mumbai masterminds like Lakhvi continued to roam free in Pakistan.

“Let us at least sit across a table and talk about all issues. I believe a solution will come when there is dialogue,” he said.


Also read: Don’t get breathless over Kartarpur, Imran Khan has no power to wage war or peace


‘Tried to reach out to India’

But as the questions on cross-border terrorism continued to rain thick and fast, Khan said he had tried to reach out to India from the very first day since he got elected.

“But I got such a bad response from India when the meeting (between the two foreign ministers on the margins of the UN) was cancelled. Then they even put condition for talks…as if there was no intention for peace.

“I was surprised,” Khan said, adding, “and then the election fever started.”

Asked if he would make a grand gesture towards India, because the opening up of Kartarpur Sahib could be constituted as “low-hanging fruit”, Khan said Pakistan also needed a response to several gestures it had made.

“It is okay till the elections, but then we expect the Indian government to respond,” the Pakistan prime minister said.

He repeated his Kartarpur aphorism, “All the authorities in Pakistan, the army, the government, are all on the same page.”

The entire region is looking for peace, the Pakistan prime minister said, and it was the responsibility of governments to deliver. Cross-border trade and other pro-people measures would improve the economy and reduce poverty, he said.

He pointed out that India and Pakistan had changed from the time he used to play cricket against India, “when there was no option to lose”. But then during the Musharraf era, the two countries played against each other and he realised that there was such a desire for peace that the outcome of the match didn’t matter that much.

But, he added, “please don’t confuse these gestures as a desperation for peace.”


Also read: Imran Khan says Pakistan govt and military are on same page, want to mend ties with India


 

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2 COMMENTS

  1. the tragedy of India and Pakistan . Even if two people wanted to do something good, the politicians and people would ensure they could not. Add to that the armed forces

  2. For a considerable period of time Mr Modi had absolutely no idea on how to deal with Pakistan. He didn’t know whether to take a cold aloof approach or a warm outreach approach. During that groping-in-the-dark period he made an unannounced visit on Nawaz Sharif’s birthday or someone’s wedding in his family. Pakistan, in the meanwhile, was continuing with its terrorism nuisance unabated. Pathankot happened, Mr Modi had no clue, he in fact invited ISI to aid in investigations! Uri happened, again Mr Modi had no clue, but this time, someone in the army possibly gave an ultimatum to the government that the army could no more take the humiliation of terrorists attacking them at their whim and fancy. And then the surgical strikes happened.

    And with that has happened the metamorphosis of Mr Modi. If the strikes had happened purely on his initiative, then their success would have bred in him a snug feeling of accomplishment. Such a feeling automatically makes the person magnanimous. He would have then tried to further bolster his image of a tolerant big brother by saying to Pakistan, “look, I’ll hit you again if you don’t behave. Now be a good boy, and talk to me properly.”

    But Mr Modi’s behavior after the surgical strikes has not been along the above lines. His reaction has been that of a frightened man whose self respect has been restored by the elder brother (read, ARMY). Now that man who was “frightened” earlier, or was at his wits end about how to deal with the opposite party, is taking full revenge by cocking a snook at the opposite party. Now the opposite party — Pakistan — is making offers for talks, and Mr Modi is playing aloof and even hostile. The purported line, “terror and talks cannot go together” is a sham line. Had terror stopped when Mr Modi went to Pakistan on a surprise, and uninvited visit as mentioned above? Had terror stopped when Mr Modi invited Pakistan’s ISI to help in Pathankot attack?!

    Someone connected with the army — it could even be Manohar Parikar, the then defence minister — gave Mr Modi a chance to live with an upper hand over Pakistan, and he is seeing in it a chance to whet his age-old hatred for Muslims. Mr Modi thinks he can annihilate the Muslims. If he were to show magnanimity or even practicality by launching a robust round of talks to solve the Kashmir problem, he could have achieved much more than what any of his predecessors had ever achieved, because none of them had ever been in such a strong situation.

    Presently Mr Modi is busy rooting out the terror from Kashmir which, very worrisomely, involves killing mostly the local youth. Due to successful sealing of the borders by the army, the Pakistan volunteers are no longer available to be killed. This too could be a deliberate ploy of Pakistan — to withhold its own terrorists, so the local anger can boil over due the killings of the locals.

    Imran Khan has no alternative but to wait till the 2019 elections if he is sincere about talks.

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