India shouldn’t rush into engaging with the new Imran-led Pakistan
whose party brass includes hardcore extremists like Ijaz Shah, an EX-ISI officer and handler of Hafiz Saeed, Mullah Omar and Daniel Pearl’s murderer. Shah, now in Parliament, also helped hide Osama bin Laden.
Make no mistake: After this contrived election, Pakistan seriously risks slipping deeper into a jihadist dungeon. Its exploding population, resource pressures, a pervasive lack of jobs, high illiteracy and fast-spreading jihadism create a deadly cocktail of internal disarray. Caught in mounting debt to China, it now needs an international bailout.
Successive Indian governments have failed to develop a clear strategy to deal with this Mecca of terrorism. India’s policy pendulum onpakistanactuallyswingsfromoneextreme to the other — from vowing a decisive fight to making schmaltzy overtures. While Washington has cut off security assistance to Pakistan and periodically slaps new sanctions on Pakistan-based terrorists, India is loath to back its rhetoric with even modest diplomatic sanctions or by leveraging the Indus Waters Treaty, the world’s most generous watersharing arrangement. All talk and no action, by undermining Indian deterrence, has invited continuing cross-border terrorism.
Today, instead of rushing to engage Imran, New Delhi should let the new leader establish his bona fide intentions for combating terrorism. Tellingly, in his “victory” speech, he called Kashmir the “core” subject but evaded the central issue for India, Afghanistan, the US and Pakistan’s own future — tackling and terminating the presence of terrorist groups on Pakistani soil.
Brahma Chellaney is a geostrategist and author The views expressed are personal