New Delhi
24 July 2009
Zardari -- Gilani power tussle behind B-word; Zardari refused to raise Balochistan with Manmohan in Yekaterinburg, but Gilani colluded with Army and ISI in Sharm-El-Sheikh
Parts of Pakistani Establishment wanted President Asif Ali Zardari to raise the
Balochistan issue at Yekaterinburg but he didn't. That, in New Delhi's estimation, was
why Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, in his talks with Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh in Sharm-El-Sheikh a month later, insisted on mentioning that Pakistan has some
information on threats in Balochistan and other areas.
So did New Delhi, in retrospect, err by appeasing Gilani and unwittingly isolating
Zardari? A section of former Indian diplomats would like to believe so, but New Delhi has
countered by saying it has clean hands and clean conscience on Balochistan, and it
would not shy away from a discussion if Islamabad wanted to raise what was essentially
"an internal matter of Pakistan". New Delhi also maintained that it was not in the
business of picking and choosing leaders, and New Delhi's responses would only be
governed by Islamabad's actions against terrorism.
As the Joint Statement came under criticism in Parliament, a source tracking India's
engagement of Pakistan clarified that the controversy surrounding delinking of action on
terrorism from talks had been interpreted erroneously. The Joint Statement was so
worded as to pre-empt Pakistan from hiding behind the excuse that it was not going to
take action against terrorism because there was no composite dialogue. A "limited
process of engagement" had been restarted at the level of foreign secretaries but the
composite dialogue was still an open question, the source said.
Further, the source doubted the merit of sticking to the formulation of no talks until
Pakistan took credible steps against terrorism. Islamabad has indicated that it will take
action against some persons, and firewall them from the big shots of the Lashkar-e-
Tayyiba and also from the Pakistani Establishment. Although it would not give New Delhi
100 per cent satisfaction, New Delhi reasoned that this was more than what Islamabad
has ever said or done before, and Islamabad was not likely to do anything more than
what it has now signalled it will do.
The source also clarified that Pakistan did not give India any dossier on Balochistan;
what Pakistani Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir did hand over to the Indian delegation
on the night of July 14 in Sharm-El-Sheikh was a couple of pages listing the actions
taken by Pakistan post-26/11, including photos and biodatas of the proclaimed offenders
in the initial chargesheet.
On ISI Chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha reportedly making an offer to his Indian
counterpart for talks, New Delhi indicated it needed to think whether it should encourage
such contacts given that the ISI, despite it having the capacity to act as a catalyst for the
resolution of all outstanding issues with India, was the source of trouble. New Delhi also
had reservations about the offer not being routed through the Government of Pakistan.
Obliquely, New Delhi suggested that the media frenzy surrounding the Sharm-El-Sheikh
talks might have made it difficult for the Indian and the Pakistani delegations to conclude
the talks without issuing a joint statement.
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