NEW DELHI, March 16: India on Monday named a new envoy to Islamabad who once helped shape their turbulent ties into a famous embrace, and said New Delhi hoped the positive outcome of the domestic crisis in Pakistan would lead to a stable democracy there.

“What is happening in Pakistan is essentially its internal matter. Normally we do not comment on internal affairs of any country,” Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee told journalists here as the crisis in Pakistan blew over.

“At the same time, it is in our interest if a stable and democratic government is in place in Pakistan, which acts as a bulwark against terrorism and extremism,” he added.

Mr Mukherjee said India hoped that “internal confrontation of Pakistan will come to an end so that it could devote attention to fight against terrorism”. He maintained that fight against terrorism was in Pakistan’s own interest as it “is the biggest menace to peace and development”.

His reference on Monday to democracy as an element in the stability of Pakistan was a marked improvement on his ministry’s statement on Thursday in which a preference was expressed for strong and stable regime in Islamabad but mention of democracy was glaringly omitted.

The new Indian High Commissioner designate is Mr Sharat Sabharwal, currently a special secretary in the foreign ministry. An official announcement said he was expected to take up his assignment soon. Mr Sabharwal was deputy high commissioner in Islamabad when the two countries went for tit-for-tat nuclear tests, which led to serious turbulence in their relations. Having served in Islamabad in that post from 1995 to 1999, he obviously had a ringside experience in shaping the Lahore Declaration signed between their prime ministers in February 1999.

Mr Sabharwal’s appointment to succeed Mr Satyabrat Pal, who retired last month, did not come without the usual India-Pakistan melodrama, garnished with mistrust.

India had first sought an agrema for Mr Sudhir Vyas, the country’s ambassador to Bhutan and now heading for Germany, but Islamabad communicated its disapproval saying he was declared persona non grata and expelled from Pakistan in 2003 following the December 2001 attack on Parliament.

In February 2003, India had expelled then acting Pakistani high commissioner Jalil Abbas Jilani, declared him persona non grata and registered a case against him for funding Kashmiri separatists. In a tit-for-tat, Pakistan expelled Mr Vyas, then acting Indian high commissioner.

It was not clear if the rejection of Mr Vyas’s name by Islamabad would impact the chances of Mr Jilani in succeeding the current high commissioner in New Delhi, Mr Shahid Malik.
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