Pakistan and India

Pakistan and India has long standing border and river water conflicts which led the two

nuclear powers to engage in two wars in 1965 and 1971. Pakistan has been supporting people of

Kashmir for its independence and self rule. It was until musharraf’s regime, Pakistan came up

with the added point of demilitarizing Kashmir and reported various incidents of human rights

violation.

Pakistan backed Taliban for long time to fight U.S proxy war with Russia in Afghanistan. The

attack on World trade center in 2001 changed the regional security and diplomacy. The same

Taliban U.S supported decade ago was called terrorist and Pakistan was called upon to be part of

this war on terror. Pakistan supported U.S in war on terror to not lose its strategic goal of

Kashmir independence. If Pakistan would have decided otherwise, the U.S would have folded its

support for India and Pakistan would not be able to support Kashmir cause internationally.

Although Pakistan continued its support to separatist movement in Kashmir in response to the

brutal killing of innocent kashmiris at that time (Uamir Jamal ).

India lobbied against the fighter groups and pressured United States to declare them

terrorist after attack 2008 Mumbai attack. U.S put Lashkar-e-taiba and Jaish-e-muhammad in

terror groups and forced Pakistan to ban these Organizations. Pakistan being frontline ally had

to abide to U.S orders and change its national policy of supporting freedom fighters in Kashmir.

(Margalla papers, 2015). Despite cutting support for Kashmir, Pakistan policy on Kashmir

remain intact of self Independence or free and fair elections which would let chose kashmiris

either to join Pakistan or India.

To counter Pakistan support for Kashmir, India has started its support for exploited baloch

nationals in Pakistan. India lobbied on different forums to get support of European Union and

U.S against Pakistan (CNN news-18). While Pakistan call it national security problem and
blames India for negative propaganda against Pakistan. China, who have invested heavily in

Gawadar, coastal area of Balochistan want Pakistan to handle the problem with peacefully.

Pakistan blames India for providing military support to locals and waging war against their

State.

India and Pakistan trade goods worth $2.3 billion as reported in 2013 (Huma sattar). India

granted Pakistan with MFN status in 1996 and seek same from Pakistan. Pakistan granted India

with NDMA (Non discriminatory market access) under pressure from Indian government

despite having other trade agreements such as SAFTA (South Asian Free Trade agreement)

(Ranjan Mishra).

Media Ban on Terror groups

United States have dictated many policies for Pakistan. In 2015, it called Pakistan to ban the

media coverage of terrorist outfits. As a result, Pakistan Electronic Media regulatory authority

(PEMRA) issued notices to all satellite Tv channels and FM radio for any type of coverage to the

members of the banned Organizations (DNA india).

Pakistan nuclear arsenal

Pakistan call it s nuclear program for peacekeeping and counter balance to India. It has come

under immense pressure from U.N and the Western powers to halt the production of ballistic

missiles and nuclear weapons which could misbalance regional security. Pakistan was forced to

sign CTBT (Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban treaty) alongside India (Anwar Iqbal).