NEW DELHI: A general election is due in Pakistan on February 8 and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif is likely to return to power. However, not much will change immediately between India and Pakistan with the change of guard, so one has to view it with “cautious optimism,” says India’s former high commissioner to Pakistan, Ajay Bisaria.
“I I would view the next government in Pakistan, after elections are held, with cautious optimism. India too will go to the polls and have a new government this year. New governments tend to take new initiatives. India’s biggest concern with Pakistan is that of terrorism,” Bisaria told this newspaper.
Nawaz Sharif as of now seems to be the frontrunner for the prime minister’s job in Pakistan. Even though personality matters and also the chemistry between leaders, one of the main reasons for a diplomatic standoff between India and Pakistan is the primacy of the Pakistani army.
“The structural reason for the diplomatic low between India and Pakistan is Pakistan’s army’s hostility towards India and the use of terrorism as a weapon against India. We cannot have normalcy unless that primacy is reduced,” said Bisaria, who has recently written a book titled Anger Management: The Troubled Diplomatic Relationship Between India and Pakistan.’
The book is a long answer to a short question: what do Indian diplomats do in Pakistan? “It traces the history of India-Pakistan relations through the eyes of the primary protagonist who is the Indian diplomat in Pakistan,” Bisaria says, adding the book tells the entire story of the relationship from that perspective.
In the two years that Bisaria was in Pakistan, a lot happened — Pulwama, Balakot and the abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir. However, the same year Kartarpur corridor was opened. Kartarpur is a pilgrim site, where Guru Nanak breathed his last.
“Even though the events that happened in 2019 were challenging, there were threats for Indian diplomats, but we were safe because we were offered protection in Islamabad,” the former diplomat added.
Bisaria also said he hoped people across the border in Pakistan read the book.
What do Indian diplomats do in Pak?
Former diplomat Ajay Bisaria’s book titled ‘Anger Management: The Troubled Diplomatic Relationship Between India and Pakistan’ is a long answer to a short question: what do Indian diplomats do in Pakistan? “It traces the history of India-Pakistan relations through the eyes of the primary protagonist who is the Indian diplomat in Pakistan,” Bisaria says adding the book tells the entire story of the relationship from that perspective.