Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari’s visit to India originated in his desire to make his devotions at the shrine at Ajmer, the famous pilgrimage center where great and small, rulers and ruled, persons of every condition and rank, have been drawn through the centuries. 

They come from every corner of South Asia in an unending stream; several heads of state and government have preceded Zardari, and doubtless there will be many more after him. So from one point of view it is nothing extraordinary that he should have decided to come to Ajmer to join the endless throng of devotees that seek divine intercession at the shrine.

But of course a visit to India by the president of Pakistan can never be a simple affair. It was no great surprise that what started ostensibly as a private act of devotion quickly took an official color.

India’s Prime Minister asked Zardari to come to New Delhi where the two leaders had a secluded round of talks followed by luncheon at which India’s top leadership was among the guests, and by this time Zardari’s party had swelled to some three score, including Pakistan’s home minister and, more eye catching, the president’s son Bilawal, whose time as leader may be in the offing. Thus the private visit took on many of the aspects of a state visit, but without the heavy trappings of state occasions.

While the visit assumed a more substantial aspect, expectations were deliberately pitched low. No great breakthroughs were anticipated and it was no surprise that none were achieved. Zardari is identified with a more open and accommodating approach to India, especially on economic issues, but his visit was not the occasion for major decisions on bilateral matters.

For that, more detailed preparation and discussion would have been required. Currently, Indo-Pak ties are in reasonable shape, one indicator of which is the loosening of restrictions on trade that promises important benefits to both countries.

Zardari and the civilian leaders of Pakistan are given credit for being able to push through the decision to place trade with India on a most favoured nation basis, and despite some predictable dissent from a few quarters, this decision has been welcomed in both countries.

Of course, to open up trade in this manner would scarcely have been possible without the implicit support of Pakistan’s military leadership. Skepticism remains, however, perhaps more in Pakistan than in India, about the ability of the current civilian leaders to drive the peace process onward. This has less to do with their commitment to the task than with their increasingly fragile political authority.

Pakistan’s Supreme Court has been adamant in its insistence that allegations of corrupt practice against Zardari must be vigorously investigated and pursued, though the government remains unwilling to comply.

As a result, the highest organs of state authority in Pakistan are locked in combat and the outcome is unpredictable. Hence cautionary voices are to be heard in that country, calling for prudence at this time of political ambiguity.

To a lesser extent, and for very different reasons, there are also voices in New Delhi to counsel the Indian leadership to hold back and not be overambitious in its efforts to press ahead. For the present government, the end of its tenure may still be fairly distant but it is now beginning to come into view, so it is feared that there may not be time enough to embark on ambitious efforts to find solutions for the many knotty issues that divide the two countries.

Moreover, in recent months the government has taken many hard knocks that have had the effect of reducing its authority at home and to diminish its capacity to settle complex problems abroad, especially with Pakistan. Better wait, say the cautionary voices, until a better prospect becomes visible.

Despite such talk, the leaders refused to be deterred, Zardari went ahead with his visit, and the talks between him and Manmohan Singh were conducted in a very positive spirit. Nor were they overshadowed by the U.S. decision to place a bounty of $10 million on Hafez Saeed who is India’s prime quarry for his role in organising the terror attacks in Mumbai.

We were told that this issue and the larger matter of terrorism against India came under review in the private talks between the two leaders even though neither of them singled it out in their separate remarks to the media after the talks were over.

The most substantial matter coming from the meeting is that Zardari renewed the invitation to the prime minister to visit Pakistan and Manmohan Singh expressed his acceptance.

This is not the first time that such an invitation has been proffered and accepted in principle, but after this occasion it seems distinctly possible that the visit could materialize. Though the Pakistani side had earlier indicated as the Zardari visit was taking shape that a return visit before the end of the year would be desirable, no specific timing has been agreed by the leaders; yet in the aftermath, it seems that talk of the return visit has substance and is more than just polite conversation.

Official comments after Zardari’s departure from Delhi add some details. The talks, we were told, were wide ranging and covered many areas of mutual interest, which is to say that they did not focus on just a few selected issues of concern to one side or the other. At the same time, India’s overarching preoccupation with terrorism directed against it from across the border figured prominently in the one-on-one discussions.

No concrete measures to improve matters were announced but the forthcoming meeting of the home secretaries of the two countries would be expected to address the matter. This meeting, which is due shortly, would also be the occasion for announcing a liberalised visa regime that has already been largely agreed in bilateral discussions.

The announcement about visas came as a genuine surprise for nobody seems to have been aware that a visa agreement of this nature was in the works. Quite possibly the two leaders wished to have the announcement made at this stage, even before the secretaries met, so as to show an immediate benefit from the Zardari visit.

The few carefully phrased remarks about their discussions on specific issues gave a brief glimpse of what the leaders discussed during their meeting of around 40 minutes.

More important was the satisfaction they both expressed at the fact that they met and at the tenor of their exchanges. What they conveyed adds momentum to the ongoing dialog, the more so as it could be leading to a full-fledged summit before the end of the year. 

By Salman Haidar

Salman Haidar is India’s former foreign secretary. ― Ed.

(The Statesman/Asia News Network)