Can Indo Pak Relations be Reinvented
India Today Conclave – New Delhi
March 24, 2007
It is a privilege for me to join you this evening at India Today’s Conclave in New Delhi, to discuss the Challenges for the Brave New World.
I first came to India as a teenager visiting Simla with my Father in 1971.
I still remember the warmth and affection with which the people of India greeted me although we were supposed to be the enemy.
Following the Simla Agreement signed between Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1972, I came away with the strong feeling that peace between India and Pakistan must endure.
It gives me great satisfaction that since the signing of the Simla Agreement thirty five year ago, India and Pakistan, although engaged in conflict, did not go to full war against each other.
The enormity of this is better understood when we appreciate that between 1947 and 1971, a period of twenty five years, India and Pakistan fought three wars.
As Prime Minister of Pakistan, I worked with Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to build on the spirit of Simla. Our governments signed the first major agreements since Simla, the agreements not to attack each others nuclear installations in 1988 amongst others.
In 1988, at the SAARC leaders’ summit at Islamabad, I proposed that we transform SAARC from a cultural organization into an economic one. The South Asian Preferential Tariff Agreement was born as a consequence.
In 1999 at the Indo Pak Parliamentarians Conference in Islamabad I proposed that India, Pakistan and all the countries of South Asia put aside their differences to create a common market to eliminate poverty, hunger, unemployment and backwardness. Through soft borders.
So, ladies and gentlemen, I believe that Indo Pak relations can be creatively re-invented.
Time stands still for no one. The moving finger of history writes and having written, moves on.
We have a choice. The choice is ours to write a success story of free markets, liberty, human rights, gender equality, common values of tolerance and understanding.
The Pakistan Peoples Party and I, even in Opposition, have tried to write a success story co-authored with all the intellectuals, political parties and leaders of both our countries who truly believe that the future welfare of humanity in our part of the world lies in cooperation.
I see the world in terms of competing economic blocs that can best function in an environment of peace and security. I see the world as one where the have nots can conquer poverty if we come together in an economy of scale as Europe has done.
For these ideas, and for seeking peaceful relations with India, I was once called, a “security risk” by my critics.
But ideas cannot be killed by character assassination or by repression. In time, my political opponents as well as the military establishment of my country realized the importance of peace as a quality that makes or breaks a nation.
I am proud that today India and Pakistan are discussing ways and means to have open borders, trade and travel. We still have a long way to go, but the journey has begun.Of course the danger is there of the derailment of the peace process. Both our countries nearly came to war in 1999 in the icy glaciers of Siachen.
Both our armies stood eye ball to eye ball in a deadly year long confrontation following a terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament in December 2001. The recent attack on the Samjhota Express this year once again demonstrated the fragility of a peace process which can be disrupted by a deadly act of violence.
We know now that there is a consensus amongst the political parties of India and Pakistan, a consensus between our military and security establishments that peace must be established. We also agree that the one serious danger to the peace process comes from militants and terrorists. Therefore the challenge for us is to dismantle the militant cells so that they cannot hold the foreign policy of two independent nations hostage to their acts of terrorism.
In this connection, I welcome the decision by both India and Pakistan to work together on anti-terrorism efforts and to share information in this regard. This is a positive step forward.
I commend Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Government of India for refusing to rise to the terrorist bait in blaming Islamabad when a militant strikes its target. The militants are the enemies of peaceful relations, peaceful relations that both our countries want and desire.
Both the governments of India and Pakistan are declaring their deep desire to resolve the Kashmir Dispute, to build peaceful relations and to work for greater economic cooperation.
I welcome this effort to re-invent our relations.
Many well wishers advised me to oppose the present peace process between India and Pakistan for two reasons. First, they saw it lacking legitimacy as Pakistan is presently governed by a military regime which holds onto power by virtue of its army constituency.
Secondly, since Indo Pak relations and the Kashmir Dispute excite passions easily, it was felt that opposing the peace process as a, “sell out” would help mobilize public opinion against the military dictatorship and facilitate the restoration of democracy.
The restoration of democracy is a cause dear to my heart.
It is a cause for which my Father and brothers laid down their lives as did hundreds of our party workers and others belonging to the democratic opposition.
It is a cause for which my husband cumulatively spent eleven years in prison without a conviction and for which my brothers, mother and I spent long years in exile. However, my Party and I did not seek the easy route to create mass frenzy. We believe that the future happiness of the people of South Asia, a happiness flowing from a peaceful environment providing opportunities for our youth was too important to be lost in an internal political battle in Pakistan.
I do agree that there are issues of legitimacy involved when a non representative government negotiates as the people are not co-opted. The tribal situation in Pakistan, where the Taliban have regrouped is an example. Despite 80,000 troops being sent into the area to clear the militants, a peace treaty was signed with them.
This proves the point that without political participation, it is very difficult to make lasting advances.
Today it is a matter of satisfaction for those of us who envisaged open borders, trade and travel between India and Pakistan, before it became fashionable to do so to witness the Pakistani military dictatorship sign on to the peace process and commit itself to resolving issues with India in a peaceful manner without prejudice to our differing views on Kashmir.
There are voices that claim that the present peace process with India is an eye wash meant to cover the regime in election year to neutralize the Indian lobby.
They argue that after stage managing the elections schedule in Pakistan later this year, all it will take is one more militant attack to recreate the tensions that have marred Indo Pak relations in the past.However, once again I do not believe that we should base our political policies on fear.
I believe the challenge for the future is to re-invent our policies so that we build them on hope.
For that hope to be formalized we will have to deal with the issue of both militancy and terrorism.
Militancy and terrorism are the roots of violence, senseless destruction and loss of lives.
We have to protect innocent people of our countries by each one of us working for the dismantlement of militant groups, the elimination of terrorism and the promotion of interfaith tolerance and harmony. These objectives are all the more important in this the 60th anniversary of the independence of both of our countries.
I wonder how many in this audience were present when the British set midnight of August 14th 1947 as the hour for the clock to strike freedom.
It was an exciting moment in history when the people of India gained their separate Nations. Yet it was also one of pain.
Innocent people were killed because they were either Muslims fleeing to Pakistan or Hindus fleeing to India.
And more blood was shed of our citizens who died in the many wars and acts of terror experienced since we both got our freedom from the British.
In this the 60th year of our independence, I propose that the leadership of India and Pakistan put an end to this destructive chapter in the lives of our countries. I propose that on the 60th anniversary of our Nations this August they meet to declare their commitment to bring us the permanent tranquility and progress and prosperity that two neighboring countries must have.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I have made trade, not conflict with India, a top priority of my forthcoming electoral campaign in Pakistan. At 60 years we must pledge an end to war, terrorism and death.
Sixty years of freedom gives us the maturity to change our direction dramatically.
I am committed to bringing peace between our two countries. My commitment to peace began when I was a young child. I lived through the bombings of the 1965 war between our countries.
I heard the stories of the dead and of the homes destroyed, of the terrible destruction of infrastructure putting both our developing countries further back in their quest to modernise.
I saw my Mother rushing to help the soldiers and their families, help the wounded and the injured.
As a student at Harvard University in America, I joined up with fellow students to protest the Vietnam War, a war that they felt was unjust and did not want to fight.Since then I have seen many more conflicts on television in the Middle East, in Afghanistan, between Iran and Iraq and in Iraq. The more I see of the devastation of war, of how the vultures descend to feed on the bodies of dead children, the more I am convinced that we must keep our region secure and peaceful. We cannot fail our children.
India and China both have a dispute but they do not go to war against each other.
We must learn from this model to develop our own relations. As an undergraduate at Harvard University, I met your late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. I witnessed the first peace agreement signed by our two countries. In the words of the famous American Secretary of State Dean Acheson, I was “Present at the Creation” of the peace movement between our two countries.
I am proud of the fact that during my two tenures in office, neither of our peoples or armies had to face a Kargil like situation.
I am proud of the fact that during both of my two tenures in office, there were no terrorist attacks on Indian targets such as the Bombay Blasts or the Indian Parliament Blast. It is not easy to keep the peace but my government did so and reined in the militants too.
On a separate note, we brought peace to Karachi taking on the militants there and we brought peace to our tribal areas taking on the militias of the narco barons in those mountains. My Government had the capacity to build nuclear weapons but we chose to remain a nuclear capable state instead of turning ourselves into a nuclear weaponised state. We had the confidence in our people and in our ability to defend ourselves without involving ourselves in adventures which could only turn the clock back on the pursuit of progress for all the people of South Asia who are shackled with backwardness and poverty.
One of the ways that I tried to re-invent the relationship between Pakistan and India was to involve military and intelligence personnel in the process. In this connection, we established intelligence to intelligence contact with a view to help formal diplomacy. Additionally we proposed the induction of retired military officials in the track two discussions.
With terrorism now a global issue, cooperation between India and Pakistan to work on eliminating terrorism from the region offers an important opportunity to reinvent the relationship. Therefore it is a welcome development that following the summit meeting in Cuba last year in September both Islamabad and Delhi have agreed on an exchange of terror-related intelligence through quarterly meetings. I know that the hotline established by Rajiv Prime Minister Gandhi and myself between the military headquarters of our two countries has played no small part in preventing escalation of tensions in the relations between the two countries. Ladies and Gentlemen, we live in societies where there are islands of opulence amongst oceans of misery.
It is wrong, morally wrong that the gap between the rich and the poor should be so huge that some people do not have food to eat or a job to give them dignity. I find it so difficult to understand how in the third millennium so many should die because they do not have drinking water or the water they have is contaminated.
We should band together to fight hunger and disease. We should band together to fight discrimination and bigotry against minorities. We should band together in a political and economic condominium that could be a model to the entire world of the what the future hold. These are the real issues that confront our masses.
There is much that the countries of South Asia can learn from each other.
All the countries of South Asia, except Burma and Pakistan, have civilian control over the military and therefore over the conduct of their nations in foreign policy. As the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 proved in America, civilian control of the military is essential to the safety and development of a country. Bringing peace between our two countries will help make that happen.
The Cuban Missile Crisis showed that if the American military had had its way, the Americans would have made war against the Soviets. American President John F. Kennedy prevented a war that could have killed 100 million Americans.
Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and I have signed a Charter of Democracy committed to a framework of peace and justice for the people of Pakistan. The Charter of Democracy commits both our parties to friendship and peace with India.
Last year American President George W. Bush said in his annual State of the Union address.
“Dictatorships shelter terrorists and feed resentment and radicalism, and seek weapons of mass destruction. Democracies replace resentment with hope, respect the rights of their citizens and their neighbors, and join the fight against terror.”
I agree with President Bush on the nature of dictatorships. I have dedicated my life working for the restoration of democracy in Pakistan.
In the last election of October 2002, I was not allowed to fight that contest. Yet despite international observers calling the elections “flawed”, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) which I head, was still the largest vote getter at nearly 26 % of the vote almost similar to that of the Congress Party in the elections of 2004. Unfortunately the Parliamentary session was indefinitely postponed to fracture my support. If not I would have formed a government like Mrs Sonia Gandhi did after the 2004 election.
I am fully on the side of the people. My late and beloved father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, named our party – the Pakistan People’s Party. We have a long history of fighting for the people of Pakistan.
I have fought dictators and oligarchs before. I will fight them again in the election campaign of 2007, and I intend to win.
Some have asked why I am returning to Pakistan.
The answer is very simple Pakistan is my home. And I have long ago accepted my responsibilities of leadership. I didn’t choose this life. It chose me.
I have been honored by the people of Pakistan to be twice elected their Prime Minister. During the time of my service in that role, the religious parties never had more that 3% representation in our National Assembly.
A democratic Pakistan standing next to a democratic India and a democratic Afghanistan can start to turn around our part of the world.
On the issue of Kashmir, we must make a viable peace. This is a solvable problem that must not take further lives.
Pending a final settlement, I agree with the statement of your Prime Minister supporting an autonomous Kashmir running much of its own affairs. A Commission can be established between the two countries and the leaders of Kashmir themselves to work out what should be done in foreign and defense affairs.
While working out the solution to Kashmir we should not allow slow progress on it to be an obstacle to work in other cooperative matters.
There are several ways to reinvent our relations. These include through economic integration and trade, business cooperation, media exchanges, transportation links between our two countries, the energy requirements of our economies, sports and entertainment events, cooperation in the Information Technologies, the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, in medicine, education and agriculture.
Let us remember:
- Economic integration and trade brought Europe the peace and prosperity it has enjoyed since World War Two concluded. The Europeans started the European Coal and Steel Community. Jean Monnet, a French economist and Robert Shuman, the French Foreign Minister, saw this vital industry as critical to those wishing to wage war.They brought the major European countries together to control steel and coal thereby stopping the war making capacity of the individual European nations, especially of France and Germany.
It was the first step that the Europeans took to blunt the instruments of war making within their continent.
There is no reason we in this sub-continent cannot do the same.
A dear friend who helped bring China and the United States together told me that the total two way trade between the US and China before 1972 was just $25 million INDIRECT trade mostly through Hong Kong.
Now in 2007 US-China direct trade is over $200 billion. That trade and other factors have made China the huge economic engine it has now become.
That is the kind of future that awaits our people if we can reinvent our relations.
2. Regarding transportation links: a start has been made with the bus journey between Srinagar and Muzzafarabad and the train between New Delhi and Lahore. We must increase those links, eliminate visa restrictions and remember that when we can travel between France and Germany – two old enemies – the train or bus does not stop any more for police and customs checks.
Energy resources are vital to our economies. The closest readily accessible energy source of hydrocarbons is in Central Asia. My government implemented my Father’s proposal to build Gwadar Port in Balauchistan, Pakistan’s largest province, to bring Central Asian gas and oil to world markets through Pakistan. My government agreed to building pipelines for oil and gas to be pumped across Pakistan to India.
I intend to make these plans a top priority of my country -to bring these gas and oil pipelines from Central Asia to the people of Balauchistan in Pakistan and to export them to India. It is vital to our economies and our industry.
The political instability of Afghanistan hampers trade with Central Asia. Therefore controlling terrorism in the tribal areas of Pakistan is a priority for my people and for the government we hope they will elect us to make. A peaceful and democratic India, Pakistan and Afghanistan can bring enormous benefits in this program of bringing new energy resources to all of our economies.
In addition, Pakistan has one of the richest shale deposits in the world. A new low-cost technology now is available to get useable energy from the shale and the residue in water.
We will share both the technology and the product with you.
4. We have all seen the excitement of our peoples when one sport team visits each others countries. These exchanges must happen frequently without governmental interference. Let the fans from Lahore come and cheer their teams playing in Bombay or Calcutta or visa versa.
The Prime Minister of Pakistan controlled Kashmir Sardar Attique has welcomed investment from all regions and religions of the world, including from Indian controlled Kashmir. He has offered gas and electricity across the Line of Control. Discussing such proposals can help bring us closer.
The devastating earthquake in 2005 demostrated that disaster recognizes no geographical borders. People on both sides of the Line of Control in Kashmir were killed, injured and lost their homes and loved ones. It was a terrible tragedy and awoke in our minds the need for us to work together even on issues such as disaster control.
The entertainment industry is huge in India and growing in Pakistan. There must be no boundaries between our countries in this area too.
5. Both of our countries exploded nuclear devices in May 1998. We have now proved to each other and the world that we are firmly in the group of elite countries that have nuclear weapons. We do not have to prove our military prowess anymore.
We do need to continue investing in an area that brings little economic return to our peoples and countries.
Let us turn our investment and co-operation towards the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. The people of France get 80 per cent of their power generation of electricity from nuclear methods.
I have just mentioned a very few of the areas in which we can co-operate. Many more exist.
Across from the United Nations Headquarters in New York City there is a small peace park with an inscription that says:
“They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: a nation shall not lift up sword against another nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”
Or, as Mahatma Gandhi said, “An eye for an eye only makes the whole world blind.”
Let us serve the people we all love by bringing peace to these lands we all love!
Thank you for the honour of speaking before you.