To the discomfiture of Pakistan, White House official circles have reiterated that there was no mention of Kashmir in the bilateral talks between President Obama and Prime Minister Modi when they met last week in the White House. It is significant that only few days prior to it, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had made pointed reference to Kashmir issue in his address to the General Assembly at its 69th session in New York. Commentators have reacted to this speech in various ways, some saying that the script came in khaki envelop from Rawalpindi to be placed on the desk of the Prime Minister.
What were the compulsions for Pakistani Prime Minister to spend his precious minutes on Kashmir, an issue that is much insignificant when looking at the critical domestic situation now prevailing in Pakistan? Observers are of opinion that pressures of including Kashmir in his speech came from GHQ. The army in Pakistan feels that two important areas on which it has almost established monopolistic authority viz. Pakistan’s foreign policy and Kashmir issue are gradually being taken away from it. The Generals are not prepared to accept that they can be sidelined in these sensitive areas. It is the inherent conflict between the elected Government in Islamabad and the GHQ in Rawalpindi which are at loggerheads as each wants not to surrender its rights and powers.
PM Modi who addressed the General Assembly after Nawaz Sharif had spoken, did not respond to the tantrum of Nawaz Sharif and as such gave an impression that Kashmir is not a matter of priority with him and he does not need anybody’s help in conducting a dialogue with Pakistan in an atmosphere of peace and tranquility and not in a condition of Islamic fundamentalism. It has to be noted that no Security Council resolution is anymore applicable to Kashmir after the two countries concluded the Shimla Agreement in which both agreed to resolve Kashmir issue bilaterally. Moreover, two former Secretaries General of the UN namely Botros Botros Ghali and Kofi Annan both said publicly while on Pakistani soil that the resolutions on Kashmir passed at the SC were irrelevant after the signing of Shimla Agreement according to the Charter of the United Nations. Nawaz Sharif knew that what he was speaking about Kashmir had no takers among the members of the world body. This is one of the main reasons why the two leaders of US and India, did not touch upon Kashmir issue while they talked endlessly on so many other matters of immediate interest to world community.
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