‘Non-NATO ally status may harm Indo-Pak peace’
By Waqar Gillani
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_27-3-2004_pg7_25
LAHORE: Noted peace activist, politician and founding member of the Pak-India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD), Dr Mubashar Hassan, has said the American statement of making Pakistan a non-NATO ally could harm Indo-Pakistan peace steps.
“The United States has never wanted peace in South Asia so that it could use it as a market for arms etc. It always protected and supported dictatorship in Pakistan against democracy for the assurance of success of its plan,” said Mr Hassan.
He also worried that the Indian and Pakistani governments had done nothing for Kashmiris yet and the peace move could be an election tactic. “The real situation will be clear after the Indian general elections,” he said.
Mr Hassan was delivering a lecture on ‘Indo-Pak relations – Past and Future’ arranged by the Rotary Club Garrison and the Rotary Club Midtown at a local hotel on Friday night. PIPFPD was the co-organiser of the lecture.
“What worries me is that both sides have done nothing about Kashmir,” he said, adding both governments should start respecting the rights and opinion of the Kashmiris if they want peace.
He said that thousands of Kashmiris had been imprisoned. “They are not allowed to visit places in India and Pakistan on their own. The governments on both sides have put restrictions on them,” he said.
Mr Hassan said the US designation for Pakistan would impact the India-Pakistan peace process adversely. He said that the Baghdad, CETO and CENTO treaties and a number of other Pak-Us agreements had already worried India.
He said America should have consulted India before making the announcement about Pakistan.
Mr Hassan said: “The US wants to please the Army which protects its interests in Pakistan because the US has always supported dictatorships in Pakistan. He said the US wanted to use the region as a safe market for its 88 percent speculating capital. In the last 250 years, the US has become the most violent country in the world, which also deployed its forces in its own states,” he said.
Mr Hassan said India-Pakistan peace was also not acceptable to the upper class in both countries before the 1980s. “The upper and ruling class bought weapons on both sides and used them to spread hatred between the two nations to win elections,” he said. “But, after the 1980s the same people started chanting India-Pakistan slogans friendship because of their internal rifts.”
Mr Hassan said that in the early 90s there were eight associations and 18 groups working for peace. “But in 1994, we formed the PIPFPD, which held conventions of people from both sides.”