KARACHI: Give track-II diplomacy a chance, seminar told
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, June 8: Track-II diplomacy was not given much of a chance in helping better Pakistan-India relations as the two countries were at daggers drawn most of the time, whereas Europe managed to overcome the Second World War’s destruction by paying more attention to track-II and other forms of dialogue.
This was said by the Honorary Chairman, International Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution and former federal information minister, Javed Jabbar, in his lecture titled “Pakistan and Europe: Tracks through the past and future,” delivered at the Area Study Centre for Europe, University of Karachi on Friday.
Sharing his views with the students of the department he said that Europe had suffered a lot at the hands of the “charisma creators,” such as Mussolini and Hitler.
“These leaders were blindly followed by the populace. However, the people realised their mistake soon afterwards,” he remarked. Turning the focus of the discussion towards Pakistan and India, he said, “It (the relationship) has not grown stronger but has regained the earlier level of engagement, with easy travel and trade.”
He said no other countries had enjoyed such a knotty relationship as Pakistan and India.
“Even though one might say that the differences between East and West Germany were greater, one has to bear in mind that it was an ideological difference. However, India and Pakistan have far more vulnerable differences – religious ones,” he said.
He said that track-II diplomacy, though effective, could not be a substitute for track-I.
“Track-I diplomacy is official, documented, government-to-government dialogue that is visible to the media’s eyes and is therefore more sustainable. Whereas track-II, though it may be official, may not be documented, known to the media and can be conducted by non-officials,” he said.
Though Mr Jabbar maintained that the latter was the kind of dialogue that might be termed as transient, it did pave the way for track-I diplomacy. He said that track-II diplomacy in Europe had played a major role in strengthening the continent and had brought Europe to where it was today. “It was track-II that helped Europe come out of the obliteration caused by World War II. On the other hand track-II was not given much chance in Pakistan-India ties by the wars and obstinate circumstances” he reasoned.
However he believed that over a period of time this particular mode of diplomacy had made things somewhat better. He pointed out the challenges faced by track-II negotiations between Pakistan and India. He said that “it was important to maintain and rather amplify the progress that had been so far exhibited by it and it should also include areas that had not been part of it.”
In the question-answer session that followed, referring to a question about Iran’s future he said that Iran should have paid more attention to oil refining as it would have improved its economic condition, adding that the country was in a fix at the moment.
When asked what would happen if the Kashmiris chose an independent state over Pakistan or India, he responded that the options before the Kashmiris were to select India or Pakistan, and nothing beyond it.
