‘Pakistan-India Relations’: ISC of ISSI hosts book launch event
ISLAMABAD: India Study Centre (ISC) of the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) hosted the book launch event of “Pakistan-India Relations: Fractured Past, Uncertain Future”, authored by Ambassador Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, Pakistan’s Former Foreign Secretary.
The event featured Ambassador Jalil Abbas Jilani, former Foreign Minister of Pakistan, as the Chief Guest.
Director General ISSI Ambassador Sohail Mahmood said that the book reflected both the abiding realism of a diplomat, and the enduring passion of a peace activist. With both these strands, Ambassador Chaudhry had maintained his quest for Pakistan-India peace and normalisation, with the disposition of an incurable optimist.
Shedding light on its contents, Ambassador Sohail Mahmood said that the book highlighted five central challenges to India-Pakistan relations. These included: the intractability of Jammu and Kashmir dispute; the unbridgeability of the two countries’ positions on the issue of terrorism; the vagaries of domestic politics; the relentless Indian pursuit of regional domination; and the complexity of global geo-politics.
While highlighting the challenges, the author also suggested the ways in which the two countries could attain peaceful coexistence and manage negative perceptions of each other. The book represented an important contribution from Pakistan’s perspective to the discourse on Pakistan-India relations, which had been heavily influenced by the Indian narratives.
Sharing thoughts on the present trajectory of Pakistan-India relations, Ambassador Sohail emphasised that, over past 11 years since the Modi-led BJP regime took over, the edifice of the bilateral relationship had been systematically dismantled, brick-by-brick.
Among others, this was reflected in the discontinuation of structured dialogue process; intransigence on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute; frequent resort to kinetic action and the use of force; enhanced use of Indian proxies for destabilisation of Pakistan; weaponisation of trade, sports and water; putting the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in abeyance; and stalling of the SAARC process.
He also highlighted four structural constraints that now impeded progress in Pakistan-India relations: the RSS-BJP inspired ‘Hindutva’ ideology; the BJP’s use of Pakistan ‘bogey’ for domestic political and electoral calculations; the arrogance and hubris in Indian approach induced by India-Pakistan economic differential; and India’s major-power ambitions.
He stressed that Pakistan must maintain the overall objective of a peaceful and good-neighbourly relationship with India, but with dignity and honour. It should be based on mutual respect, sovereign equality, and mutual benefit. Any unseemly haste or unilateral concessions must be eschewed; and Pakistan’s principled position on Kashmir steadfastly maintained. Pakistan should also employ all feasible diplomatic, political and legal options to safeguard its legitimate rights under the IWT.
The Chief Guest Ambassador Jalil Abbas Jilani lauded the book as both interesting and educative. He underlined that the book invited readers to reflect on the fractured past covering all aspects of it from history, culture, contesting ideologies, human suffering during the partition, and the disputes that followed. He suggested that the book deserved wider dissemination not only in Pakistan, but also in India and elsewhere.
On bilateral relations, Ambassador Jilani expressed sorrow that the list of contentious issues between the two countries had kept on expanding instead of shrinking.
The peace efforts made in the past by the political and military leadership on both sides yielded considerable results but the revisionist approach of the current Indian leadership had become a principal obstacle in peaceful coexistence. Ironically, India which itself was the perpetrator of state-sponsored terrorism inside Pakistan and elsewhere, was using the rhetoric of ‘cross-border terrorism’ to internationally malign Pakistan.
The growing realization among Indians about shrinking space for India due to its hegemonic posturing in South Asia gave optimism for a better future. He expressed the hope that there may emerge in India a leadership with greater appetite for peace for the sake of billions of the South Asian inhabitants. However, the media, civil society, and academia must play their role to stress this realization to the political and military leadership.
Ambassador Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, while dilating on the book’s contents, emphasized that four issues carried accumulative effect on Pakistan-India relations. They included, a deep and abiding mistrust stemming from pre- and post-independence happenings; an Indian nexus with British Raj to grab Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir; the narrative of ‘cross-border terrorism’ cleverly used by India to malign Pakistan and the legitimate Kashmiri struggle; and India’s hegemonic posturing towards the region and its states, which in turn contributed to destabilisation of South Asia. These four factors had landed the two states in a complete disconnect, and enduring hostility.
The author emphasized that “the road to peace may be bumpy, yet not closed.” He cited dearth of credible scholarly works amplifying the Pakistani perspective as the primary motivation behind taking up of this book project.
The event was attended by senior diplomats, practitioners, academics, think-tank experts, students, and representatives of civil society and the media.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025