PM Modi meets Sharif: Pakistan army in loop on terror talks in latest round of engagement

NEW DELHI: The Lahore Declaration of 1999, scripted by Nawaz Sharif and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, unravelled with the Pakistan army's Kargil adventurism months later. This time though, PM Modi may have stronger reasons to believe his decision to engage Pakistan, which culminated in his Christmas date with Sharif, comes with a deeper coat of impregnability.

For one, India is now not just engaging the civilian government under Sharif but the formidable, and extremely popular, army chief Raheel Sharif himself, in the form of its dialogue with Pakistan NSA and Raheel's close aide General Nasir Khan Janjua (Retd) over the a crucial issue of terrorism. "This round is different because there is backing from the top where it matters... the army chief is himself on board," a top diplomat said before the visit.

Pakistan's former high commissioner Shahid Malik told TOI there was complete consensus in the country on improving relations with India. "In fact, things will not move forward if India believes there are differences over the issue between the civilian government and the military ," he said. "We should make this good spell count," Malik added.

Another reason for India to feel more confident about its Pakistan outreach is that it has also significantly addressed the reason why the army seemed to be resisting engagement. PM Sharif riled Raheel Sharif by not including J&K in the Ufa statement as one of the issues ad ressed. This "wrong" was corrected in the meeting beween Janjua and NSA Ajit Doval in Bangkok, where J&K made an appearance in he statement issued.

After Ufa, under pressure from the army , the civilian overnment had to make an extra effort to convince all in Pakistan that it indeed looked at Kashmir as the core ssue. That meant that Aziz ould not come here for his date with Doval in August nd leave India without meeting Hurriyat members.Convinced that Pakistan's position had been compromised in Ufa, the army ensured that NSA talks, which was focused only on India's concern over terrorism, could not take place in isolation. It was then that Pakistan, in what India described as against the spirit of Ufa, said that talks between NSAs could take place only if there was also a dialogue between the foreign secretaries to address other outstanding issues, most importantly Kashmir. The presence of foreign secretaries in Bangkok was crucial in breaking the deadlock in ties.

For the moment, it is the presence of Janjua in the engagement process which is most comforting for the two countries. "General Janjua is the best man for the job and has already proven to be an asset to this (peace) process," a member of Sharif 's cabinet said earlier this month. "It's only an added benefit that he has a direct line to the (army) chief," he added.