NEW YORK: Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Maleeha Lodhi, on Tuesday, warned that the ongoing crisis on Pakistan’s eastern border would mean implications for the nascent Afghan peace process.
In her interview with international media, Ambassador Lodhi clarified that this threat was from India.
While she stopped short of saying that this would affect Pakistan’s role in the process, she seemed clear that the shift in focus could have that unintended results.
To a question on the possible impact of the simmering tensions between Pakistan and India, she responded, “Our attention is going to be where we feel there is a military threat to us.”
The latest round of Afghan peace talks is underway in Doha, Qatar, between the U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, and Taliban’s deputy leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. The leader is taking a more direct role in the process for the first time.
Ambassador Lodhi claimed, “Both (Afghanistan) and (Kashmir) issues are important in their own right. But it is the eastern border, from where India attacked Pakistan. They sent planes into our territory. That’s a hot border.”
She believed that Afghanistan was a different situation, further adding, “We would like that war to end. But we don’t perceive a threat from our western border. It’s our eastern border from where we continue to perceive a threat.”
The diplomat asserted, “We are in the midst of a very tense situation, a very fraught situation.”
She claimed that the Indian leadership had not responded to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s repeated gestures or peace, including freeing and releasing the Indian pilot.
Relations between Pakistan and India turned frosty when a suicide attack killed more than 40 Indian paramilitary troops in Kashmir on February 14. This has led to a constant war hysteria erupting from New Delhi while Pakistan has categorically denied any involvement and even offered to investigate. Yet, India still went ahead and dropped bombs inside Pakistani territory.
Ambassador Lodhi further added, “We kept asking the Indians to give us what you have and we will act on it.” It was said that only a few days earlier, the alleged dossier was handed over to Pakistan.
She claimed that Pakistan was examining it to see if it contained any actionable evidence, stressing that Pakistan would act if there was any solid evidence, but not on mere allegations.
To a question about Kashmir, the Pakistani envoy said that the dispute has been there for the past 70 years.
“It has to be addressed, in its own right and (on) its own merits because it will remain an issue that will lead to repeated tensions between India and Pakistan and in any case, it is an issue that is on the Security Council agenda and it has resolutions that remain unimplemented.”
Lodhi called on New Delhi for hurling allegations because of its own failure. She charged, it “is not a responsible way to act nor does it bring peace to our region.”
