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Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif belittles own army, says India has more trust in their capabilities than he does
Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif belittles own army, says India has more trust in their capabilities than he does | idrw.org
Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif belittles own army, says India has more trust in their capabilities than he does | idrw.org
In a sensational disclosure kept under wraps so far by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif said he had less faith in the Pakistan Army than India when the two met in New York last month on the sidelines of UN General Assembly.
The remark was not in jest but came in the course of an intense discussion between the two premiers during their one-hour meeting on September 29. Sharif's remarks were reported in a 'Record of Discussion' (RoD) made by the prime minister's aides and compiled by the Prime Minister's Office to be shared with top government functionaries of the Indian government.
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the Indian Prime Minister repeated his assertion that those who have caused the incidents on the Line of Control and the International Border will have to resolve it, and that militaries both countries should be involved. It was then Sharif signed off with the remark reposing mistrust in his own army, telling Singh that India had more faith in their capabilities than he did.
The remark is significant because it revealed that Sharif continues to struggle with a powerful army at home. It is also a reassertion that India will have to deal with multiple power centres in Pakistan, even more significant in the present context when the pressure is on Sharif to give a powerful postretirement role to his hard-line Army Chief General Ashfaq Kayani, who wants to handle the Kashmir and Afghanistan affairs as National Security Advisor and control Sharif's foreign and strategic policy. Sharif also raised the issue of Baluchistan to which Manmohan responded that no evidence has been handed over by Pakistan on this accusation which has been leveled earlier as well.
Response
Last week on his way back from the summit meetings in Russia and China, Manmohan expressed his disappointment at the happenings on the LoC. "Let me say that I am disappointed, because in the New York meeting, there was a general agreement on both the sides that peace and tranquillity should be maintained on the border, on the Line of Control as well as on the international border and this has not happened."
Nawaz's statement exposes the fissures in the Pakistan establishment, but it also brings to the fore Nawaz's Janus faced approach as he is neither willing nor capable of reining in the army, but he is willing to run down his own army to showcase to the international community that he holds the reins of power in Pakistan.