Bilawal Bhutto: All dressed up but no one to talk to in India

Bhutto is due to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s foreign ministerial meeting in Goa, between May 4 and 5.

From the time it was confirmed by Islamabad that he would attend the meeting in Goa in person and not address it virtually, diplomatic and media circles were abuzz.

Bhutto will be the first Pakistani foreign minister to visit India in 11 years. The one to do so was Hina Rabbani, who is currently Bhutto’s junior minister.

There was speculation over whether it would also lead to a bilateral meeting with his Indian counterpart and host, S. Jaishankar.

There were never great expectations of a major breakthrough in frosty India-Pakistan relations even if the two met. But it could have been the first step towards a thaw in the bilateral ties.

A string of developments in recent weeks have now made a possible bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Goa event extremely difficult.
Indian foreign ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi was noncommittal when asked about a possible meeting between the two foreign ministers.

Terror attack kills chances of dialogue

The announcement of Bhutto’s visit to India was followed by a terrorist attack on an army truck in Poonch, Jammu and Kashmir, on April 20, killing five soldiers. That attack almost ended any chance of a bilateral meeting.

The terrorists behind the attack were suspected to be linked to Pakistan-based terror outfits Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba.

The Indian foreign minister, S Jaishankar, who had earlier refrained from making any comments on speculation about his bilateral meeting with Bhutto, decided to speak out after the Poonch attack. Jaishankar ruled out any possibility of talks with his counterpart from Pakistan, stating that terror and talks cannot go together.

Unless Pakistan shows credible proof that it is taking action against terror groups based in the country and stops using terror as a tool of engagement with India, there will be no talks with the neighbour.

The invitation to the Pakistani foreign minister was sent as Pakistan is a member of the eight-country Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), whose rotating presidency is with India this year.

Along with India and Pakistan, Russia, China, and the four Central Asian countries — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan — make up the eight-member SCO.

There is no indication yet that Bhutto might call off his visit to India after Jaishankar’s rebuff.

But it has set off a series of attacks on the Pakistani foreign minister by his political detractors and commentators known to be hardliners against any possible India-Pakistan rapprochement.

Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has lashed out at Bhutto for going to India even after his request for a meeting with Jaishankar was rejected by the Indian side.

Fawad Chaudhury, a spokesman of Imran’s PTI, said Bilawal’s visit to India is an insult to the sacrifices of Kashmiris.

‘No question of war’

Significantly, a video of Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir accusing former army chief Bajwa of publicly confessing that Pakistan can’t fight India because of the sad state of its economy has gone viral in the country over the past few days.

According to Mir, Bajwa confessed before a group of 25 journalists that the Pakistan Army’s tanks are useless and there was no money even to put diesel in them. He even said that Pakistan Army was not capable of fighting.

Mir claimed that Bajwa had made a deal on Kashmir with India and had struck a ceasefire agreement with the Indian army along the Line of Control.
All this was being done to set aside the Kashmir dispute and start engaging with India.

Mir said this in conversation with Naseem Zehra, another Pakistani journalist, as he claimed Bajwa was trying to make a deal with India behind the Pakistani army’s back.

Ayesha Siddiqa, a Pakistani commentator on military affairs said the timing of the video containing the conversation between Mir and Zehra was aimed at scuttling Bhutto’s visit to India.

However, Bajwa’s reported confession has put the Pakistani hardliners and various terrorist outfit leaders in overdrive.

Since the video went viral, they have all come out criticising Bajwa for humiliating the country in public and demanding strong action against the former army chief.

Most have publicly stated their commitment and support for the Kashmiri people’s struggle against India.

These recent developments in Pakistan clearly indicate that the country is still ill-prepared to meet the conditions set by India for a possible resumption of dialogue.