Daily Times

The ruling Sharif family is once again in the news for all the wrong reasons. First, it was the Panamagate debacle and, now, the visit of Sajjan Jindal, a New Delhi-based business tycoon with friendly ties to the ruling family. Multiple reports over the last couple of years indicate that he has been serving as a mediator between Prime Ministers Nawaz Sharif and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi.

No official statement has yet been released to the media has on the purpose of Jindal’s visit, and rumour mill is abuzz with suggestions that he had arrived with a ‘secret’ message from Mr Modi. A meeting between the two premiers may be in the works on the sidelines of the next Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Kazakhstan.

The question remains: what message has New Delhi sent and why no press release has yet been issued by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO)?

Jindal’s visit came at a time when Indian Navy commander Kulbhusan Jadhav has been sentenced to death for facilitating terrorism in Pakistan and former Pakistani Taliban spokesperson Ehsanullah Ehsan alias Liaquat Ali has ‘confessed’ to his terrorist organisation’s alleged connection with Indian and Afghan intelligence services. Pakistan Army is already in no mood to compromise on its stance on Jadhav’s sentence and the Foreign Office has repeatedly denied consular access to him.

Considering Indian-held Kashmir (IHK) also remains in hot waters with a home-grown separatist movement reaching its peak following Burhan Wani’s death last July, perhaps, Jindal came as a backchannel diplomat with a message seeking diffusion of tensions.

Publically, Mr Modi has often boasted that he would diplomatically isolate Pakistan and has even threatened to cut the country’s water share under the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT). Nonetheless, his Pakistan policy for the past three years has remained haphazard and inconsistent, to say the least. The direction New Delhi has taken regarding Islamabad has been met with much criticism in diplomatic and political circles on both sides of the border.

There is nothing wrong with Jindal’s visit as a ‘messenger of peace’ in the tradition of Track-II diplomacy, but why continue keeping details of the meetings shrouded in secrecy?

An important point to highlight is that Jindal’s twitter account is often filled with scepticism about the Pakistani military establishment’s role. In his opinion, the establishment has been a huge obstacle for peace between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. If the larger picture is considered, however, India comes across as no angel when it comes to sabotaging peace. Its diplomatic high-handedness has been quite costly for maintaining stability in the region. At a time when Pakistan is focused on economic development and forging a stronger alliance with Beijing, Moscow and Ankara, Indian accusations of Pakistan’s role in sponsoring terrorism seem quite outdated for the consumption of the former’s own public. In addition, it would seem that India has no right to raise such allegations when its own intelligence agencies are allegedly involved in playing havoc with the lives of innocent Pakistanis through proxy warfare. Indian National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval and former Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar have made such claims openly.

As for PM Sharif’s relations with Jindal, his government must issue a concrete explanation to clarify concerns regarding any conflict of interest in personal business and public diplomacy. A failure on this count will jeopardise the prime minister’s role as an impartial figure who’s already embroiled in several domestic controversies. Peace should remain the ultimate aim in South Asia but it should be achieved in a consistent manner that is in line with a consensus maintained through both countries official diplomatic channels.

The writer is a geopolitical analyst at Business Plus. He can be reached at hassankhan440@gmail.com and tweets @mhassankhan06