The Composite Dialogue process between New Delhi and Islamabad is in jeopardy especially after Mumbai attacks and episodic terror acts perpetrated by Pakistan based terror groups in recent past. However, the decade old Track-II diplomacy between the two rival nuclear powers is on the cards now and scheduled this week when important delegation from India would visit Pakistan. A team of intellectuals comprising former diplomats, retired military generals, writers and thinkers, is scheduled to arrive in Pakistan to resume this citizen-centric informal diplomacy (people to people contacts), making an effort to normalize bilateral ties. The exchange of ideas on a range of bilateral issues will be taking place with a similar group across the border to hammer out a fresh joint strategy.

Despite many unresolved and thorny Indo-Pak issues including the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, India’s External Affairs Minister, S M Krishna, in a media interview (Times Now.tv, May 23) cautioned Pakistan to take necessary steps to dismantle terror infrastructure which is a major stumbling block in the bilateral ties. But he again optimistically added:

We stand ready to extend our hand of friendship and partnership with Pakistan. Generally, we would like to live in peace with neighbors (e.g. Pak, Nepal, Sri Lanka). That has been our desire and we are pursuing that. We cannot change our neighbors therefore we will have to live with them.

These utterances are not totally out of the box thinking on the part of S M Krishna. India has been showing its soft corner towards its neighbours, including Pakistan, at the time of crisis, even both countries fought at least three wars and faced as many war scares since the ‘vivisection’ of the subcontinent. However, this ‘forgive and forget’ attitude always looked down upon by Pakistani establishment as a sign of weakness. Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi too aired optimistically last month (May 26) about a “cordial and better” relations between Pakistan and India. But the word must be backed by actions on the ground. Instead of bringing the Mumbai terror attack culprits to justice, Pakistan’s Lahore High Court has ordered the release of Jammat-ud-Dawa Chief Hafiz Saeed on June 02. This would hamper definitely future course of actions between India and Pakistan.

Track-II process has been criticized for some reasons in the past. According to critics, the outcome of these meetings or recommendations never finds their way to actual policy-making process either in Pakistan or in India. However, there are positive aspects as well. At the time prevalent mutual distrust, ‘Track-II’ is the only channel that helps to maintain vital engagements for future course of action and keep options for official dialogue.