Absence of conflict resolution could result in destructive escalation: Pak's top military General

Islamabad: Pakistan’s top military General has stressed the need to move towards conflict resolution instead of management, warning that its absence could result in a destructive escalation, according to a media report on Sunday.

General Sahir Shamshad Mirza, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC), made the remarks at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia's premier defence forum, in Singapore on Saturday evening, the Dawn newspaper reported.

During a panel discussion, titled “Regional Crisis-Management Mechanisms”, Mirza said: “It has become imperative to move beyond conflict management towards conflict resolution. This will ensure sustainable peace and assured crisis management.” He then stressed that an “early resolution of Kashmir (issue) in line with the UN Security Council resolutions and as per the aspirations of the people is essential” for an enduring peace in South Asia.

His remarks came in the backdrop of the recent military confrontation between India and Pakistan after the terrorist attack in Pahalgam.

“Given the Indian policies... the absence of a crisis management mechanism may not give enough time to the global powers to intervene and affect cessation of hostilities. They will probably be too late to avoid damage and destruction,” he said.

Mirza also highlighted the Kashmir issue and the recent military confrontation between Pakistan and India.

“When there is no crisis, Kashmir is never discussed, and as we always say that it is the Kashmir dispute resolution in line with the aspirations of the people of Kashmir and in line with the UNSC resolutions that will address many issues.

“The core that resides between Pakistan and India is Kashmir,” he said.

Mirza said unless countries did not “enter conflict resolution” — which he said could initially be through conflict management and then lead to resolution — issues would “always erupt”.

Other speakers on the panel included Canada’s Deputy Minister of National Defence Stefanie Beck and Fiji’s army chief Major Gen Jone Logavatu Kalouniwai.

In an apparent reference to the Kashmir issue, Mirza said, “Crisis prevention is better than crisis fighting. Suppressed disputes, whether territorial or ideological, cannot be indefinitely managed.” He said the recent Pak-India military confrontation had underscored “how regional crisis management frameworks remain hostage to countries’ belligerence”, noting that the only line of contact between the two countries was the director general military operations (DGMO) hotline.

The top general further said that following the military conflict, the “threshold of an escalatory war has come dangerously low, implying greater risk on both sides, not just in the disputed territory but all of India and all of Pakistan”.

“Emboldening of India as a net security provider by the West and its ambition to become a regional hegemon is disincentivising it to engage in conflict management options,” Mirza asserted.

He said Pakistan desired a “peaceful coexistence with India based on mutual respect, sovereign equality and most importantly, dignity and honour”.

“We seek a principal order, an order anchored in sovereign equality and restraint. In this, crisis management is not merely a set of tools but a strategic ethic,” he added.

Mirza stressed the need for Asia-Pacific and South Asia regions to re-energise and strengthen existing bilateral, regional and multilateral frameworks instead of chalking out new mechanisms. “States need to communicate more and more often and more effectively.”

Gen Mirza also asserted that following the Pakistan-India military confrontation, the threshold of strategic stability had been lowered to “dangerous levels”.

He stated, “The threshold of what we say conventional warfare has significantly degraded.” Gen Mirza pointed out that the 1965 and 1971 wars with India were “always confined to the disputed territory”. “[However,] this time, it has transcended that and come to the international border.” “Instead of targeting the borders first, which used to be the conventional domain or erstwhile domain, the cities have been targeted and the borders have relatively remained, if not silent, comfortable,” he said.

He noted that strategic stability hinged on conflict resolution, adding: “The lowering of this threshold to the dangerous levels, if next time such a conflict occurs and the cities are targeted first, […] there could be a chance — I’m not trying to create an alarm but I’m speaking based on logic — there could be a possibility that before the international community intervenes because of the restricted or constricted times window, the damage and destruction may have already taken place.” India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 to destroy nine terror infrastructures in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in retaliation to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that left 26 people dead.

All subsequent retaliations to Pakistani offensives were carried out under this operation. The four-day military conflict between India and Pakistan ended with an understanding on stopping the military actions on May 10.

Mirza mentioned the US, the UK, Turkiye, China, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as the “interlocutors”.

On South Asia, the CJCSC remarked: “A looming threat of a global scale resides. South Asian strategic outlook is shaped by competing interests of the global power play, complicated Iran-West relations, perpetual instability in Afghanistan, India-Pakistan-China equation and the unresolved Kashmir dispute that remains at the core of India-Pakistan dyad, leading to regional instability in the geostrategic realm.”