JK News Today Analysis
In its tit for tat measures announced in response to India’s announcements on Wednesday of keeping Indus Water in abeyance till Pakistan rolls back its cross-border terrorism, Islamabad on Thursday among other things declared suspension of the Simla Agreement of 1972.
This is quite bizarre, as Pakistan never abided by the contents listed in the Agreement signed after Bangladesh replaced East Pakistan in December 1971. The agreement had bound India and Pakistan to certain conditions, the highlight of which was to search for peace and stability in the region. India, under the premiership of Indira Gandhi , went out of its way to accept its terms – more than 90,000 Pakistani prisoners of war were set free without insisting on full and final settlement of Kashmir issue.
Pakistan’s current leadership , including its Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif , and Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar should read Benazir Bhutto’s book,” Daughter of the East”, to know who was desperate for this agreement . The history has its own pages to serve the chilling reminders . Read it before thinking of saying anything on the pact .
The Kashmir issue, in fact,, was left pending for final settlement Pakistan had cake and ate it too. Perhaps Indira Gandhi was too smug after having split Pakistan into two – East Pakistan was gone , and Pakistan had to accept its western part as the whole of the nation that she overlooked the opportunity to get the of J&K – that is what is PoJK back to Jammu and Kashmir under the unchallenged sovereignty of India. That’s regrettable chapter of Indian history.
The major thrust of Simla Agreement, signed by the then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her Pakistani counterpart Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was on bilateralism. That meant that all their issues would be attempted through bilateral dialogue and diplomacy without involving the third party – fundamentally it negated Pakistan’s clamour for resolution of Kashmir crisis through UN resolutions that sought plebiscite on both sides of Jammu and Kashmir under the UN supervision, and upheld the Indian view that the issue should be resolved bilaterally.
In the context of Jammu and Kashmir, it was important the newly created Line of Control as per December 17, 1971, replaced the Ceasefire line that had come about after the UN mediated ceasefire agreement in 1948 following the Pakistani invasion of the princely state of J&K under Maharaja Hari Singh’s rule. This agreement also made it incumbent upon both the countries not to unilaterally change the status quo .
The agreement had ignited hopes that it would lead to lasting peace between the two countries which had witnessed three wars till then-1947-48, 1965, and 1971.. India was enjoying its triumph over the split of Pakistan into two- the creation of Bangladesh on the land and waters of East Pakistan – had negated the two nation theory and established its supremacy in the region , despite highly biased approach of the US that had sided with Pakistan but that could not prevent fall of eastern wing of Pakistan. On the other hand , Pakistan was left nursing its wounds . Instead of choosing path of peace, Pakistan embarked on a strategy to take revenge on India for the loss of east Pakistan.
Pakistan tore apart all the provisions of the agreement when it launched proxy war in late 1980s in a bid to stir a rebellion in Kashmir with the clear lethal intent to grab the territory of Jammu and Kashmir to take over its water resources. The intrusion into the abandoned Indian posts in Karggil heights in the winter of 1998-199, which resulted in a war in the trans-Himalayas was a clear attempt to change the status quo of the LoC Pakistan had killed the spirit of Simla Agreement .
This time , Pakistan , after having staged the Pahalgam massacre , is threatening to take the terrorism to LoC, threatening to change its delineation .It knows the consequences . But courting brinkmanship is its forte.
