Naqvi's Pakistan

Militarism is a bad option for any nation in this century of co-existence, democracy and mutual respect. Even so, nuclear military technology remains a reality for nations who could afford to. It is nuke capability that deterred India and Pakistan from any misadventure against each other, and the other reality is that when they did not have a nuclear arsenal, they went for three wars in 23 years between 1948 and 1971! Nuclear bomb is, as such, proved to be a good deterrent. Whether the two poverty-stricken countries like India and Pakistan should, on moral count, have gone for nuclear weapons is a different issue. But when mutual confidence and trust remained low between them for obvious reasons, the crucial one being the Jammu and Kashmir issue unresolved for over five decades, one could hardly expect anything but building up of arsenals, the nukes being the latest of weapons they could afford. India did it first, Pakistan followed suit.

Mr. Naqvi has suggested extended economic and intimate cultural ties between the two countries. It is nothing new , but how far could that go unless and until the thorny issue of Jammu and Kashmir is resolved?