EVER since Pakistan came into being our mutual relations have seen many troughs and hardly any peaks.

I remember that in the 1950s, when I was a high-school student in Gujranwala, Indian forces were massed on our eastern borders. This compelled our country to get ready for the worst. Senior school students were trained for some kind of a military training just in case a war broke out. Our teachers told us then that India had not sincerely accepted the creation of Pakistan.

How true were my teachers: time and again they were proved right. The major events of 1965 and 1970 proved beyond an iota of doubt that Indian thinking is to harm us in any possible way they could.

The recent events are testimony to that thinking. The Indian rulers cannot stomach anything good coming out of our country but they broadcast the negatives as loud as they possibly can.

In spite of an international agreement they are stopping water flowing through our common rivers and trying to prevent us from getting long-term loans to build dams which we need for our survival.

This is just to mention a few roadblocks recently erected by them. So much so that they have now started showing unhappiness over the good performance of our cricket and hockey players vis-a-vis their own players. Come to think of it, these are only sports whose results could have gone either way.

Some of us are trying hard to bring the two people together for peace in the region and for living as good friendly neighbours. This is a good beginning on the part of the media of our two countries but looking at the ground realities, will it ever work?

M. MASUD BUTT Lahore

Opinion

Editorial

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