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Pak press cautiously hails Vajpayee’s move

Islamabad, May 3
Reacting cautiously to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s decision to restore full diplomatic ties with Islamabad on a reciprocal basis, the Pakistani Press said today that the real issue was whether the two premiers would pick up the thread from the failed Agra Summit.

While Mr Vajpayee’s announcement and his speech deserved to be welcomed for its “positive tone and content,” the real issue was whether he and Pakistan premier Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali would meet to pick up the thread from the failed summit, local daily Dawn said in an editorial today.

“Relations between Pakistan and India have a tendency to relapse into crises which no side wants but which seem to recur with almost predictable regularity,” it said.

Stating that a lot would depend on how the “hawks” in the Indian Cabinet would behave, the newspaper said, “A resumption of full diplomatic relations will no doubt mean a relative improvement in the existing situation of minimal contact, but the absence of a dialogue will only mean a continuation of the existing tension and uncertainty with all their attendant hazards.”

Another daily, The Nation, said, “If Vajpayee is sincere, he has to accept the centrality of the Kashmir issue, which he refused to do at Agra.”

“So long as India refuses to acknowledge the truth, dialogue will be impossible.”

“It is now up to Vajpayee to convince his countrymen, particularly his party, not to forget his own deputy L.K. Advani, that the Kashmir issue has to be addressed in all seriousness,” The Nation said in its editorial.

The newspaper said “Vajpayee’s political tour de force is to turn around India from a position where its Foreign Minister was threatening US-style pre-emptive action about a fortnight ago, to an offer of talks and restoration of diplomatic relations.”

Referring to forthcoming visits of US Deputy Secretary Richard Armitage and Assistant Secretary Christina Rocca to Pakistan, it said, “The USA’s interest in the settlement of the Kashmir issue is growing as it wishes to eliminate a nuclear flashpoint, and then address the issue of nuclear proliferation in South Asia.” “Herein lies a danger for Pakistan that its leadership should not lose sight of, in the days ahead.” PTI