Pakistan strikes a more conciliatory note, India urges review of decision to downgrade ties
Regretting the steps taken by Pakistan India urged Pakistan to “to review them so that normal channels for diplomatic communications are preserved.”
After its initial knee jerk reaction of promising more ‘Pulwama like’ incidents in response to India’s revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan seemed to climb down somewhat from its position. It has clarified that it was not shutting down its airspace as had been reported earlier.
Pakistan’s Foreign Office Spokesperson Dr. Mohammed Faisal said earlier on Thursday that Pakistan had not banned its airspace for India. “We have not banned our airspace for India. It is open for Indian flights,” he is reported to have told journalists in Islamabad.
Pakistan had reopened its airspace for flights to and from India on 16 July, after closing it following Indian airstrikes in Pakistan in February this year.
On Wednesday, Pakistan threatened to downgrade diplomatic relations with India and expelled the Indian ambassador in Islamabad, Mr. Ajay Bisaria, and recalled its envoy from India.
The country’s railway minister announced that it was suspending the Samjhauta Express train service with India.
Pakistan’s Nationa;l Security Committee has decided to suspend all bilateral trade with India, and has banned all Indian movies and other cultural products from India. It will also be taking the matter to the United Nations, including the Security Council and observing 14th August, Pakistan’s Independence Day, as solidarity with Kashmiris.
Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa said on Tuesday that the “Pakistan Army firmly stands by the Kashmiris in their just struggle to the very end,”
On Thursday Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said at a press conference that Pakistan was not looking at a military option over Kashmir. However, he said that Pakistan reserves the right to respond to any Indian aggression.
Qureshi also said Pakistan could resume full diplomatic ties with India if India rethought its decision over Jammu and Kashmir.
Earlier, two US Democratic lawmakers – Senator Robert Menendez and Congressman Eliot Engel – in a joint statement had urged Pakistan to refrain from any “retaliatory aggression” against India and take “demonstrable action” against terrorist groups within its territory, reported the Press Trust of India.
Pakistan has also been undertaking diplomatic measures by reaching out to heads of states, especially from the Muslim world. Prime Minister Imran Khan has made phone calls to the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, President Recep Tayip Erdogan of Turkey, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson
India responded to Pakistan’s announcement by saying that Pakistan’s ‘intentions’ behind these measures was to present an ‘alarming’ picture of bilateral ties to the world but the reasons ‘cited’ by Pakistan are not supported by ‘facts on the ground’.
In a press release India’s Ministry of External Affairs said that “recent decisions by the Government and Parliament of India are driven by a commitment to extend to Jammu and Kashmir opportunities for development that were earlier denied by a temporary provision in the Constitution. Its impact would also result in the removal of gender and socio-economic discrimination. It is also expected to result in an upswing of economic activity and improvement in the livelihood prospects of all people of Jammu and Kashmir” and that it was not surprising that “such developmental initiatives that could address any disaffection in Jammu and Kashmir should be negatively perceived in Pakistan, which has utilized such sentiments to justify its cross-border terrorism.”
It reiterated that the recent developments pertaining to Article 370 are “entirely the internal affair of India. The Constitution of India was, is and will always be a sovereign matter. Seeking to interfere in that jurisdiction by invoking an alarmist vision of the region will never succeed”.
Regretting the steps taken by Pakistan India urged Pakistan to “to review them so that normal channels for diplomatic communications are preserved.”
Analysts said that given the balance of trade was in Pakistan’s favour where the country exported more to India than it imported, suspending trade ties would hurt the Pakistani economy which was already in an alarming situation.
According to data from India’s Commerce Ministry, mports from Pakistan declined by 92 per cent to $2.84 million in March this year compared to $34.61 million in March 2018
.”The suspension of trade relations will hit Pakistan more badly as India is less dependent on Pakistan while the latter is more,” Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) Director General Ajay Sahai was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, issued a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency in which it said that the Kingdom is following up the situation in Jammu and Kashmir resulting from India’s abolition of Article 370 of the Constitution which guarantees the region’s autonomy.
“While expressing its concern over the latest developments, the Kingdom affirms that the settlement of the conflict is through peaceful settlement in accordance with the relevant international resolutions, and calls on the parties concerned to maintain peace and stability in the region and to take into account the interests of the people of the region,” the statement said.
On Thursday evening Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his first address to the nation after his government revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and bifurcated the state into two union territories – Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. In his address he hailed the ‘historic decision’ his government had taken to abrogate Article 370 and 35A, which had guaranteed the state’s special identity, and the bifurcation of the state. Saying that he had “full belief” that Jammu and Kashmir would be free from “terrorism’ and “separatism” under this system and that he had “full faith” that the people of Jammu and Kashmir, after defeating separatism, will move forward with new hopes and aspirations.
In his brief address he reassured the people of Jammu and Kashmir that they would be able to elect their representatives from amongst themselves, and would have e their own lawmakers and chief minister, and that the status of union territory was a temporary one. He also urged industrialists and exporters to take local products of Jammu & Kashmir to the world.
