Game of silences

There has been a perceptible thaw in India-Pakistan relations, but the road to peace is fraught with uncertainties

- MANDIRA NAYAR

NOTHING SPEAKS louder than silence in the India-Pakistan relationship. In February, the two countries surprised the world by having their armies issue a joint statement. The “free, frank and cordial atmosphere” that resulted in ceasefire along the Line of Control and “all other sectors’’ has kept the border quiet. But there is more to the silence than just the absence of gunfire.

On March 31, Pakistan’s Economic Coordination Committee (ECC), under the newly appointed Finance Minister Hammad Azhar, recommended that the ban on importing sugar and cotton from India, in place for nearly two years, be lifted. The recommendation gave the whiff of something that has long been elusive: normalisation of ties.

The expectations barely lasted 24 hours. A cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan decided not to begin trade until India reinstated Jammu and Kashmir’s special status. “It is a setback,” said Raoof Hasan, special assistant to Imran Khan and head of the Regional Peace Institute in Islamabad. “But, a subcommittee has been formed to look into the matter. I am an eternal optimist and I see an opportunity in the formation of the subcommittee.”