Kartarpur Sahib: No PM Imran Khan, Pakistan’s call for peace can’t be trusted

New Delhi, Nov 28: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday, November 28, stressed on peace with India at the launching event of Kartarpur corridor project at the border with India.

Speaking at the programme, Khan said nations like Germany and France in Europe fought several wars between them but they overcame all enmity over the years and today, they are so interconnected that they can't even think of fighting more wars. "If they can do, why can't India and Pakistan?" he asked, saying: "We haven't even killed so many people among ourselves. Why can't we then improve our relationship?"

Khan, who took over as the prime minister of Pakistan in August, said he used to listen earlier during his visits to India that the military of his country never allowed a chance to peace to evolve between the two countries. He said that all quarters in Pakistan are on the same page to take the relationship ahead. He also praised Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu and said he could not understand why the latter was being criticised for his visit to Pakistan during his swearing-in ceremony in August.

Khan, who reiterated that if India took one step ahead towards peace, Pakistan will take two. He said it is foolish to even think that two nuclear-armed states will go to war for nobody can win such wars. "That leaves peace as the only other route. Why can't we take that?"

Nice to hear but not realistic

Khan's script sounds nice. As former sportsmen, he and Sidhu might think about India-Pakistan peace in a lighter way. There is no problem in thinking in such way. But the problem is that the reality in India-Pakistan relations is not as simple and light.

Modi took pro-peace measures after coming to power; didn't get worthy response

Nobody will really believe Khan when he says that all quarters in Pakistan today - be it the military and civilian leadership - are on the same page. If such is the case, then why still the perpetrators of the 26/11 attacks are still not brought to justice by Pakistan? Khan would also need to answer the question as to why there is no end to backing terrorists who often enter India to carry out devastations? Till he answers these questions and puts into place a mechanism to deal with them, there is little chance that the two countries will start believing each other.

India and Pakistan are not France and Germany and there is also no point in criticising the Indian leadership for not taking enough initiative to give peace a chance with Pakistan. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had taken enough initiatives when he took over the office in 2014 but his surprise visit to Lahore in December 2015 was only reciprocated to by the terror attack in Pathankot, similar to what had happened in 1999 when Atal Behari Vajpayee took a bus ride to Lahore. Why was such a dastardly attack on Indian jawans in Uri in September 2016?

Can Imran Khan explain why India's call for friendship was betrayed on those occasions? Only hearing him give a convincing answer that India could think afresh about a renewed peace initiative.