Rajeev Sharma
Tribune News ServiceNew Delhi, April 15
The UPA government is going to press for the ultimate Confidence Building Measure (CBM) with Islamabad as Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf arrives here tomorrow evening for talks with the Indian leadership: an agreement on peace and tranquility along the Line of Control (LoC).
India is also going to impress upon General Musharraf for the need to build further on defence-related CBMs after the successful and the biggest of such defence-related CBMs — the November 2003 military ceasefire which has been holding ever since. This would include: re-establishment of communication links at division/Corps Commander level at Karu (Leh) and Kargil-Gilgit, Baramulla and Kupwara-Muree, Rajouri-Jhelum, Srinagar and Nagrota-Rawalpindi, and Jammu-Sialkot.
An important people-related CBM which the Indian leadership is going to push during its interaction with Gen Musharraf is for evolving a mechanism for allowing interaction at some selected points between people on both sides of the LoC, besides a trade-related CBM for evolving a mechanism for permitting border/cross LoC trade at selected points.
The crowning glory of India-suggested CBMs, on which the Indian side would be pitching for a focussed discussion with the Musharraf-led Pakistani delegation, would be an Agreement on Peace and Tranquility along the LoC. It would not be a new suggestion as far as India is concerned. It was first suggested by the then P.V. Narasimha Rao government way back in 1994.
This suggestion has been tossed thrice to the Pakistanis since then: First in 1998, then on February 16, 2004 and again on June 28, 2004. Initially, Pakistan did not respond to it at all. But after the Indian persistence with the proposal, Pakistan suggested a Joint Working Group to discuss military CBMs. India agreed to one meeting of an Expert Group on Conventional CBMs which took place on December 15 and 16 last.
Gen Musharraf is coming with a 42-member delegation but the “core delegation” is of 16-members only which includes three Cabinet Ministers — including Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri and Information Minister Sheikh Rashid — and four Ministers of State.
He will watch the last ODI between Indian and Pakistani cricket teams at Ferozeshah Kotla grounds here on Sunday morning and immediately thereafter would hold two-hour-long talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Though Gen Musharraf’s April 16 to 18 visit is informal, the Government of India is treating it with the seriousness of an official visit.
