Daily Times

Pakistan and India are neighboring states. Common saying goes that we can change our relatives but not our neighbors. Therefore, Pakistan has been trying to live with its neighbors peacefully. But unfortunately, our neighbor, India which is hostile to us, has policy to plague us. After years of tension between both the countries on the Line of Control, DGMOs of India and Pakistan contacted on hotline. They agreed to honor the LoC ceasefire settlement.

After this settlement, ceasefire agreement on the LoC was effected on February 24, 2021. It was also decided to continue holding such hotline contacts and resolve any misunderstandings and unprecedented circumstances via border flag meetings. According to DG ISPR Major General Babar Iftikhar, this hotline contact between Pakistan and India regarding ceasefire was not for any special occasion; rather it was as per schedule.

Let us remind the readers that in February 1987, the first hotline contact between DGMOs of India and Pakistan was set up. When Bharatiya Janata Party and Narendra Modi came to power in India, Indo-Pak relations turned much strained. Despite Pakistan offering peace and amiable relations multiple times, it has always been rejected by India. The Director General ISPR Major General Babar Iftikhar says that between 2003 and 2021, LoC was violated 13,627 times by India, resulting in deaths of 310 people while 1602 people were injured. In contrast, from 2003 to 2013, LoC was violated only 1062 times with 14 deaths and 112 injures. With Modi coming to power in 2014, violation of ceasefire has increased many times. Between 2014 and 2021, ceasefire was breached 12565 times, an increase of 92 percent. During last four years, 49 women were killed and 313 injured, with deaths of 36 children and 223 of them getting injured. 2019 had 3351 breaches of ceasefire, the largest in a year. This year, peace was breached 253 times in just 2 months, causing 8 injures. During the last six years, India has been shelling Pakistani areas, resulting in deaths of innocents.

This agreement breeds hope that India will no longer violate ceasefire. It will bring peace to citizens of both sides. Pakistan and India have very high inflation, but India, being a large country, has more than half of its masses below the line of poverty. More than half of the poor of the world live in India. Therefore, India should think about its people’s welfare instead of military madness and devote a larger portion of its budget to the betterment of citizens, rather than acquiring weapons. According to the report of Swedish research institute SIPRI, between 2002 and 2019, India bought 9.5 percent of weapons sold worldwide, and it the second biggest arms buyer of the world. India should not try to become the regional bully and mass up weapons. Rather it is should use this money to relieve the suffering minorities and oppressed segments of Indian society.

In this last part of this column, let us discuss the Senate elections. Abdul Hafiz Sheikh is likely to win the Islamabad seat against Yousaf Raza Gillani, the candidate of combined opposition. At the start of Imran Khan’s government, due to Asad Umer’s failure to handle the financial situation, Abdul Hafiz Sheikh was brought in. He did not disappoint Imran and led his government to a stable economy. He was also the finance minister during the People’s Party government and it was due to him that Pakistan got 6 billion dollars from IMF. As far as his past is concerned, Abdul Hafiz Sheikh did PhD in Economics from Boston University, America and then started teaching in Harvard University. In 1990s, he left Harvard to join World Bank. He was made teh chairman of World Bank’s program in Saudi Arabia.

It seems impossible for Yousaf Raza Gillani to defeat a man of such massive background. On one hand, Hafeez Sheikh enjoys the support of PTI, on the other hand every global power stands behind him. They want to see him in the Senate at every cost.