Windfall for Pakistan from the peace deal

I was asked an intriguing question the other day that set me thinking. To be honest, I'm not sure if it wasn’t intended as a joke or, perhaps, to provoke.

- Karan Thapar

I was asked an intriguing question the other day that set me thinking. To be honest, I'm not sure if it wasn’t intended as a joke or, perhaps, to provoke. But it raised an issue that I had not up till then considered. Could Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and, possibly, the country’s chief of defence forces, Field Marshal Asim Munir, be serious contenders for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize?

At the moment, I would question the word “serious”, but contenders they could well be. It all depends on whether the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding holds and, more critically, leads to a credible and lasting peace deal.

If either were to happen, they would be serious contenders. Of that, I have little doubt. Whether they get the prize is, of course, another matter.

We in India tend to dismiss Sharif and Munir as messengers, not mediators. That's unfair. The understanding that’s been reached between Iran and the US, though fragile and tenuous, would not have been possible without their intercession. They explained, encouraged and, perhaps even, cajoled. They also put a lot of effort into it. They weren't simply carriers of messages and information.