India feels Pak govt-army split behind doublespeak

 India views Pakistan’s continued doublespeak on bilateral dialogue as a sign of civil-military dichotomy in the neighbouring country.

Though India is not expecting any substantial progress in its engagements with Pakistan in the coming months, it is unlikely to call off the process to restart the stalled dialogue.

New Delhi will rather keep its eyes on evolving situation in Pakistan, as well as the progress of the probe by the neighbouring country’s investigators into the terror attack on the airbase at Pathankot in India. New Delhi is also waiting for Islamabad’s decision on its request for allowing officials of National Investigation Agency of India to visit Pakistan and question terror plotter Masood Azhar in connection with probe into the attack.    

Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to United Nations, has accused India of not being “forthcoming” to the call by Prime Minister M Nawaz Sharif’s government in Islamabad for resumption of the stalled bilateral dialogue. She made the comment while interacting with a group of students and faculty members from the US Army War College at her office in New York last week.

“Despite a positive start following the advent of the Modi government in India, Delhi suspended talks between the two countries on flimsy grounds and set unacceptable pre-conditions for their revival,” a press-release on the website of the Pakistan’s Permanent Mission to UN quoted Lodhi.

“Since then,” she added, “in spite of Pakistan’s call to resume broad based, comprehensive dialogue, India was still not forthcoming. This attitude was impeding prospects of normalisation between the two countries.”

Her comment was almost in sync with that of Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India, Abdul Basit. Basit told journalists in New Delhi on April 7 that the process to restart the stalled bilateral dialogue was “suspended”.