Acting Prime Minister of Pakistan Anwar-ul-Haq Kakkar. , Photo Credit: AP
Former Prime Minister of Pakistan and Senator Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar said that there is a consensus across all establishments for healthy relations with India. Mr Kakar, representative of Balochistan, was the longest-serving acting Prime Minister of Pakistan between August 2023 and March 2024. He oversaw elections earlier this year, and is seen as close to the military establishment. talking to The Hindu In Islamabad, Mr Kakkar said Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar’s visit to Pakistan is reciprocal, but will provide an opportunity to find out whether Delhi and Islamabad are ready for better relations.
You are Foreign Minister S. How do you view Jaishankar’s visit to Pakistan, the first by an Indian foreign minister in nine years, and the fact that he has come for the SCO meeting?
I would add to this the presence of former Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari for the SCO (Foreign Ministers) multilateral meeting in India. [in May 2023]I think it has been countered. This is a multilateral event, and both sides understand that this is not a bilateral engagement, but at the same time, moments like this, sometimes make history. They sometimes give you the opportunity to engage with things that, under normal circumstances, parties that take extreme positions might not think about. So let’s hope something comes for this area. We need to know what is going on in India’s mind intellectually? What is going on in the minds of the Pakistani political establishment, other players who are stakeholders in both the countries? Let’s give it a chance.
According to you, what does Pakistan’s military establishment have in mind, especially in view of the ceasefire on the LoC from 2021?
I honestly believe that there is a consensus on the Pakistani side: when it comes to India, everyone wants a good relationship, the military political establishment, even the religious political institutions of Pakistan, the Jamaat-e- Islamic too. They all agree that we should have healthy, constructively balanced, equal or equitable relationships. Does it translate? [similiar sentiments] In India?
Some would argue that the ball is actually in Pakistan’s court – it was Pakistan that canceled trade with India, and closed road and rail links in 2019. Do you think those decisions will now be withdrawn?
Pakistan’s external security is paramount – and obviously any threat will be responded to. We have spent nearly five decades developing our security doctrine, enhancing our conventional capability; This is a realistic expectation.
Do you think some people-to-people transport links could be restored soon?
Who would argue against mingling among common people? I would love to see this happen, but in my mind I wonder when I see Indian immigrants and Pakistani immigrants interacting in the West and the rest of the world for the last seven decades. Has it brought us closer? I believe we need to be more realistic that when there is such a deep state of affairs on both sides, people-to-people relations cannot really help resolve issues, and the challenge is how to deal with it.
published – October 16, 2024 12:08 am IST