June 03, 2015
News
‘Neither Pak nor China will accept Indian dictation on where to build CPEC’
INPISLAMABAD - Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarian (PPPP) Vice President Sherry Rehman on Wednesday said reports about India organising and celebrating a war carnival to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1965 Indo-Pak war would further shrink the space for any semblance of normalcy left in the bilateral relationship.
“Muscular articulations such as these, or objecting to Pakistan's CPEC route, will be seen as beating a war drum. Clearly, such moves will do very little in the way of resuming dialogue, which the BJP leader has stated his government’s interest in,” the former ambassador said.
According to reports, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ordered armed forces, including the Indian Army and Air Force, to organise the event from September 1 to 23 – the dates of the actual war. The carnival - reportedly comprising tableaux, exhibitions, processions, public lectures and film shows - will be held in the Indian capital.
Rehman said that any agenda for peace requires an appetite for it, not an investment in valorising memories of conflict. Speaking on Indian reservations over the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) route, Rehman said: “It must be borne in mind that the corridor passes entirely through Pakistan’s territory, and the reservation over transit through Kashmir is misplaced.”
“Infrastructure projects are being developed on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC), which impact, foremost, the communities within Jammu and Kashmir. It may serve Kashmir and the broader region better if India’s foreign policy decision makers were to consider the economic benefits created from expanding trade with China and increased trade across the LoC,” she said.
"Instead of finding pathways to peace and trade, it is unfortunate that the new "global re-positioning" of India includes large doses of coercive diplomacy and hard posturing. None of it will be helpful to constructing new regional economic dividends for South Asia, since neither China nor Pakistan will take dictation from India as to where to build highways that connect people for prosperity," she cautioned.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk