Monday, September 14, 2009
Lt-Col Mukhtar Ahmed Butt in his letter of Sept 10 titled “Is India really our enemy?” seems to have distorted history and reproduced the official version. Such an approach only ends up satisfying our egos and achieves little else. Notwithstanding the logic of the division of India, in my view India was more prudent and realistic in accepting the new state of Pakistan. The hostilities commenced when we attacked Kashmir and it was divided, and even this hostile act of Pakistan was not responded militarily. After that we should have adopted a diplomatic approach to this issue and with certain political bargains could have settled it.
In this timeframe General Ayub Khan imposed our first martial law and we started viewing policies through the barrel of a gun and this was the time Pakistan conceived and launched the 1965 hostilities. I will request the respected writer to study this episode within with special reference to military strategy. To date the nation is not aware of the logic and assumptions on which we infiltrated our special services troops into Kashmir. We then opened up hostilities in Kashmir and again I am at a loss to understand how we assumed that India would not cross the international border. The truth is that in 1965 Pakistan initiated war.
We are also forgetting that as a state we actively supported jihad in Kashmir for almost ten years and in 1998 launched an ill-conceived operation in Kargil — something on which there has not been even an iota of introspection or analysis. The dismemberment of Pakistan too is our own doing because we never gave political or economic rights to East Pakistan and instead relied more on our military power and our perceived genetic inferiority of Bengalis. India did what it had to do — how could we have expected anything different given that we had attacked it twice?
We need to learn that each country has its national interests and those are to be guarded and it is unfortunate that India has grown large economically, diplomatically and militarily. We are in her neighbourhood and we need to be more realistic when approaching India and in future only common interests can build bridges. I do not know why we surrender our sovereignty to the US and go running to Saudi Arabia — and when it comes to India we take refuge in our false pride.
In inter-state relations there is no permanent enmity or friendship, nations follow their national objectives. The actual fact is that Pakistan and India are dependent on each other for economics, security and politics. We need to reconcile with Partition, find some honourable solution for Kashmir and move forward. Poverty, lack of good governance, violation of the constitution and inadequate national integration are our real enemies and any future harm to the state will come from these rather than India.
Brig (r) Asif Alvi
Karachi
*****
This is with reference to Lt-Col (r) M A Butt’s letter titled “Is India really our enemy?” (Sept 10) which was in response to a letter, of the same title, by Malik Mohsin Nisar (Sept 8). The young generation is quite aware of the sacrifices given for the creation of Pakistan. It is also aware of ‘the failed generation’ that our elders have been. They were unable to make Pakistan what it should have been and dragged the country into unwanted wars, to the point that we are on the brink of becoming a failed state. Despite this, those from the older generation have the audacity to tell us young Pakistanis that since we — the younger generation — watch Indian dramas and movies it makes us less Pakistani.
The young generation does not want to live in a ‘closed society’ based on failed ideas. India and Pakistan have in common a history, a past and they share a culture. At the people’s level, both countries want to live in peace — though that may not be a sentiment shared by our decision-makers. With no disrespect to our elders, those in the young generation do not think in extremes. There is a huge middle ground and that can be used to build a relationship between the two countries. Calling each other the enemy does not help anyone.
Watching each other’s movies and dramas, interacting at least at the people’s level, and playing cricket helps us in avoiding these extremes and staying in the middle ground where we accept each other as good neighbours.
Muhammad Ali Ehsan
Karachi
Source: India not our enemy
Lt-Col Mukhtar Ahmed Butt in his letter of Sept 10 titled “Is India really our enemy?” seems to have distorted history and reproduced the official version. Such an approach only ends up satisfying our egos and achieves little else. Notwithstanding the logic of the division of India, in my view India was more prudent and realistic in accepting the new state of Pakistan. The hostilities commenced when we attacked Kashmir and it was divided, and even this hostile act of Pakistan was not responded militarily. After that we should have adopted a diplomatic approach to this issue and with certain political bargains could have settled it.
In this timeframe General Ayub Khan imposed our first martial law and we started viewing policies through the barrel of a gun and this was the time Pakistan conceived and launched the 1965 hostilities. I will request the respected writer to study this episode within with special reference to military strategy. To date the nation is not aware of the logic and assumptions on which we infiltrated our special services troops into Kashmir. We then opened up hostilities in Kashmir and again I am at a loss to understand how we assumed that India would not cross the international border. The truth is that in 1965 Pakistan initiated war.
We are also forgetting that as a state we actively supported jihad in Kashmir for almost ten years and in 1998 launched an ill-conceived operation in Kargil — something on which there has not been even an iota of introspection or analysis. The dismemberment of Pakistan too is our own doing because we never gave political or economic rights to East Pakistan and instead relied more on our military power and our perceived genetic inferiority of Bengalis. India did what it had to do — how could we have expected anything different given that we had attacked it twice?
We need to learn that each country has its national interests and those are to be guarded and it is unfortunate that India has grown large economically, diplomatically and militarily. We are in her neighbourhood and we need to be more realistic when approaching India and in future only common interests can build bridges. I do not know why we surrender our sovereignty to the US and go running to Saudi Arabia — and when it comes to India we take refuge in our false pride.
In inter-state relations there is no permanent enmity or friendship, nations follow their national objectives. The actual fact is that Pakistan and India are dependent on each other for economics, security and politics. We need to reconcile with Partition, find some honourable solution for Kashmir and move forward. Poverty, lack of good governance, violation of the constitution and inadequate national integration are our real enemies and any future harm to the state will come from these rather than India.
Brig (r) Asif Alvi
Karachi
*****
This is with reference to Lt-Col (r) M A Butt’s letter titled “Is India really our enemy?” (Sept 10) which was in response to a letter, of the same title, by Malik Mohsin Nisar (Sept 8). The young generation is quite aware of the sacrifices given for the creation of Pakistan. It is also aware of ‘the failed generation’ that our elders have been. They were unable to make Pakistan what it should have been and dragged the country into unwanted wars, to the point that we are on the brink of becoming a failed state. Despite this, those from the older generation have the audacity to tell us young Pakistanis that since we — the younger generation — watch Indian dramas and movies it makes us less Pakistani.
The young generation does not want to live in a ‘closed society’ based on failed ideas. India and Pakistan have in common a history, a past and they share a culture. At the people’s level, both countries want to live in peace — though that may not be a sentiment shared by our decision-makers. With no disrespect to our elders, those in the young generation do not think in extremes. There is a huge middle ground and that can be used to build a relationship between the two countries. Calling each other the enemy does not help anyone.
Watching each other’s movies and dramas, interacting at least at the people’s level, and playing cricket helps us in avoiding these extremes and staying in the middle ground where we accept each other as good neighbours.
Muhammad Ali Ehsan
Karachi
Source: India not our enemy