Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri served as foreign minister of Pakistan from 2002 to 2007. He came the closest to drafting an agreement that could have brought peace to India and Pakistan.
He has even thrown his weight behind Track-II dialogues. Now, with the Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, he hopes sanity will prevail. Excerpts from an exclusive interview.
What is your forecast, based on the situation?
I hope there is no further escalation. But, I do not know. It would be a very unfortunate if it [did escalate]….
If there is a response, there will be a response from this side. It is a given like night follows day. So, what will India do? Respond to that? As Prime Minister Imran Khan said, neither he nor Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi will be able to control events.
India proclaimed a so-called victory yesterday [on February 26]. They have not provided any evidence. Nobody could find anything. No camps, nothing. The bazaars were open. Let us say you have convinced the Indian media that you have struck, so you proclaimed your victory. Today [ February 27], Pakistan has done the same. If you had to satisfy public opinion in both countries, you have catered to the patriotic jingoistic demands of your respective constituencies. Now, if that has been done, what else can you achieve?
Imran Khan has come on the plank of peace. Do you think he still has it in him to negotiate this dialogue? Or at least initiate it?
Imran Khan feels that he has lots of friends in India. Every person has their own experience. I have my own experience with India. Imran has also the same kind of experiences I have had. Imran cannot think like jingoists in Pakistan. You can take him at face value. The sort of life he has led, the education he has had, the cricket he has played. He has friends in India. When he says he wants peace, I have no doubts that he wants peace because he spoke to me personally even about the solution in Jammu and Kashmir. He asked me to explain it to him. When he was on a visit to India, he was asked, “What will happen to Kashmir?” He said, “Mr Kasuri has given something like that in his book.” This was quoted by the Indian media.
Jaish has been operating out of Pakistan. Imran had talked about Pakistani soil not being used for militancy. What happened?
In the last seven or eight years, we have suffered so many casualties. After the Army Public School attack, the whole nation got united. The extremists were routed from North Waziristan, the world headquarters of all these groups. Since then, they have not been able to find their balance. Most of them escaped to Afghanistan, which is why Pakistan army put up a fence.
There is an Indian pilot in Pakistan custody. There are concerns about his safety.
The pilot will be very well looked after. I have absolutely no doubt. The two countries, and the armies are well trained. They are professional armies. They know how prisoners of war are to be treated. He will be treated very well. Much better than what Geneva Convention provides. I am absolutely certain about that. That was the case in the previous instance when a plane was shot down in Kargil.
Imran has made this offer of peace. Why do you think there will not be a further escalation from Pakistan? Why do you think that there will be calm in Pakistan?
The reason why there will be calm in Pakistan is because Pakistan felt that India, after 48 years, was trying to cross a certain threshold. That [India] can at will cross the LoC and even go into Pakistan. No government or public opinion in Pakistan is prepared to accept [this]. Pakistan has demonstrated that there will be a big cost if India does that. Having established that, it is enough. I will tell you why. Our media does not shout and screech as much as your media does. The result is that our people are not that anti-India. Unlike India. India is not mentioned in our elections and your elections are not complete without a mention of Pakistan. Our people are not as anti-India, as your people are anti-Pakistan.