Tributes for ‘man of peace’
HOW DIPLOMAT LAMBAH HELPED EASE INDIA-PAKISTAN TENSIONS
RETIRED diplomats in south Asia have paid tribute to a former Indian high commissioner to Pakistan, Satinder Lambah, an envoy who played a vital role in backchannel diplomatic negotiations between both countries.
Lambah, 81, passed away in New Delhi last Thursday (30). The Peshawar-born diplomat was India’s high commissioner in Islamabad from 1992 to 1995 and led backchannel discussions between India and Pakistan from 2005 to 2014.
Riaz Mohammad Khan, a Pakistani counterpart of Lambah in the backchannel communication process, said if Pakistan and India had peaceful relations, credit “will also go to Lambah”.
Khan, a former foreign secretary, was the point person from Pakistan between 2010 and 2013 and so had several interactions with Lambah as both sides worked to resolve their differences, including over Kashmir. Former Pakistan foreign minister Khurshed Kasuri said the foundation Lambah laid in the form of back-channel diplomacy “will eventually bear fruit one day”.
“His efforts for peace between India and Pakistan will long be remembered,” Kasuri said, adding, “his efforts for peace between the two countries will not go in waste.”
Kasuri revealed that six people – including the civil and military leaders from each side – were involved in track-II diplomacy in the 1990s, with Lambah and Tariq Aziz from Pakistan overseeing the peace efforts.
Kasuri also recalled his time as foreign minister when he met Indian officials, including Lambah who agreed that India and Pakistan needed to remain
engaged in dialogue, irrespective of the ups and downs of bilateral ties.
Former foreign secretary Khan recalled his first meeting with Lambah in January 2010, when the two diplomats exchanged their views on the backchannel communications process.
Lambah was a great diplomat and “a man of peace who cared a lot for our region. He was a very positive person.” “I have immense respect for him and his efforts,” Khan said.
He led the Pakistani side after Tariq Aziz, a trusted fellow of then president Pervez Musharraf and the original architect of the backchannel communication along with Lambah, asked the government to relieve him of the assignment.
Khan recalled that Pakistan and India both had understood how to address their issues through backchannel communications.
“The major success of the process was that we had everything in black and white. We developed a framework in writing by 2007 when the final draft came from India,” he said, adding that New Delhi had taken about two years to return the draft sent by Islamabad.
On Kashmir, Khan said the two sides had agreed on the formula of self-governance for the sub-regions of Kashmir. Khan said several joint mechanisms were proposed to resolve various issues arising out of the self-governance formula.
He said the process of backchannel communication was first hit by the judiciary movement in Pakistan in 2007. A year later, the terror attacks on Mumbai stalled the process. But Khan said secret efforts and communications went on between the two sides until 2014 when the process was stopped. “The formula we had worked out with Lambah was the best possible approach the two countries could have developed under the (then) circumstances,” he said, adding the paperwork was complete and the entire process owed a lot to Lambah, who led the Indian sides in those long years of secret communication.
“Whenever something is resurrected out of the work done so far, leading to peace between Pakistan and India, the credit will also go to Lambah,” Khan said.
Former high commissioner to India, Abdul Basit, said he met Lambah several times during the former’s stay in India and described him as “a thorough diplomat” who “never compromised on the interests of his country”.
“He had good connections in Pakistan as he served as deputy high commissioner and high commissioner here, and was involved in backchannel diplomacy,” Basit said.
He said Lambah was close to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif who hosted a lunch in his honour, against the advice of their foreign office.
Senior Pakistani defence analyst Hasan Askari said Lambah had personal friendships in Pakistan that others in the diplomatic fraternity lacked. “For Track-II diplomacy between two rival countries like India and Pakistan, you need diplomats with personal relations in each other’s country; Lambah had that.
“Unfortunately, in India or Pakistan today, we don’t have diplomats who could claim that they have good personal relations in each other’s countries. This is so because of strained relations between the two countries for years,” Askari said.
He said Lambah – with his experience and personal relationship in Pakistan – remained effectively engaged in Track-II diplomacy and helped ease tensions. “The track-II diplomacy (between India and Pakistan) began back in the late 1980s following efforts by some friendly countries, especially the US, to find non-official ways to improve the relationship between the two countries. And this helped too at the times of tensions between them,” he said.
Askari said Pakistan and India need to engage in dialogue as current bilateral ties are at the lowest ebb. Both governments have refrained from taking steps to improve relations are because of their domestic troubles, eh added.
“If the (Narendra) Modi government initiates talks with Pakistan, its own party workers would turn against it and if the Shehbaz Sharif government extends a hand of friendship to India the opposition here will take it to task,” he said.
Resolution of long time disputes between the two countries needs formal dialogues, not track-II diplomacy, he added.
Former foreign secretary Shamshad Ahmad Khan said Lambah’s death was an “irreparable loss” to the peace diplomacy between Pakistan and India.
“Lambah was among those people of Indian foreign service who could be called as epitome of diplomacy,” he said.
Khan said Lambah made sincere efforts for peace, but they did not yield success due to the “peculiar dynamics” of relations between the two countries. “I have a lot of respect for him,” he said. What Lambah did for peace was the “most meaningful and purposeful effort” ever made between the two nations, Khan said.
“If Lambah was my counterpart and we had the full backing of the political leadership, I can assure that we would solve all problems between Pakistan and India within two months,” Khan said, adding that Lambah had created a tradition which “we need to resume as early as possible”.
Mohammad Zamir, a veteran former Bangladeshi diplomat who was entrusted with the task of opening the India Desk at the foreign ministry soon after the independence in 1971, said he was in touch with Lambah at that time.
“We used to (fondly) call him Sati Lambah. He was a person who valued friendship and had a very proactive engagement in Bangladesh.
“He was involved with Bangladesh in different ways and different processes, while I was the director in charge of the India Desk in the foreign office after the 1971 Liberation. He was based in Delhi but used to visit Bangladesh frequently and also stayed in Dhaka for some time,” Zamir said.
Lambah, who had a wealth of experience in dealing with India’s neighbourhood, was instrumental in setting up of the Indian High Commission in Dhaka soon after Bangladesh’s Liberation, the Indian mission in Bangladesh tweeted.