Summary Ball is in India's court to decide the future of bilateral talks.
Dunya News Report (Madiha Fareed)
NEW DELHI- In an interview with India Today, the Prime Minister’s Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz confirmed that Jaish-e-Muhammad’s (JeM) Chief Masood Azhar is under “protective custody” of Pakistani security agencies since January 14th.
This is the first time that a top Pakistani Government Official has confirmed to Maulana Masood Azhar’s arrest. Earlier, Punjab’s Law Minister Rana Sanaullah had announced last month that JeM’s chief has been taken into “protective custody”, he however insisted that the detention must not be termed as “arrest”.
Prime Minister’s Advisor on Foreign Affair Sartaj Aziz, in his interview with Karan Thapar revealed that the phone numbers provided by Indian Authorities were traced to Jaish-e-Muhamamd (JeM) offices in Bahawalpur. He also informed that several offices of the banned miltant organization have been sealed across the country.
Pakistani Government on February 18th had lodged First Information Report (FIR) to commence formal investigation into Pathankot Incident. On January 2nd, an Indian Airbase in Pathankot was attacked by four terrorists. The incident left 7 Indian military personnel dead, while the attackers were also killed.
While answering a question about not naming JeM and Masood Azhar in the FIR, Mr.Aziz assured that “The FIR is only a first stage report and the subsequent FIRs will categorically carry names of persons and organizations suspected to be behind the attacks”.
He called the lodging of FIR “a logical and positive step” and that it has provided legal basis for Pakistan’s Special Investigative Team (SIT) to visit India and collect evidence, adding that “it is difficult to start legal procedure when a crime has happened in another country”.
A day earlier, Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had expressed disappointment regarding Pakistan’s hesitation to name Masood Azhar and JeM in the FIR. Mr.Parrikar said that “lodging of FIR is a positive step but not enough; Pakistan needs to take solid steps to satisfy India”.
While asked about the future of the delayed Foreign-Secretary level talks, he answered that “it is totally up to India, as Pakistan has kept its end of the bargain and has duly cooperated in the Pathankot investigation, now the ball is in India’s court to decide the future of Bilateral Dialogue”.
Sartaj Aziz is expected to meet with Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj during a SAARC conference scheduled for mid-March. Also it is expected that a meeting between Nawaz Sharif and Narendra Modi will take place on the sidelines of Nuclear Summit in Washington by the end of March.
By the looks of it, it is safe to say that Pakistan has cooperated fully with India regarding investigation in Pathankot incident. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been keen on improving relations with neighbor India and has shown that he is ready to go the extra mile if it means peace in the sub-continent; however the sentiment is not reciprocated by Indian side. Whenever an incident happens in India, their media and government officials are quick to blame Pakistan, especially Pakistan’s top Intelligence Agency ISI (Inter Services Intelligence) for exporting terrorism and harboring militant agencies like JeM.
It is high time that Pakistani Authorities figure out a direction for its foreign policy and set limits to how far it is willing to go to mend relations with the neighbors, because right now Pakistan’s strategy only seems to be dancing to the tunes set by Indian side.
