Glimses of Pakistan

The Kashmir frontier remains heavily militarised. PHOTO: AFP

Islamabad is a picturesque city where everything seemed very orderly and the arrangements made for us were excellent. Our host, the Islamabad Institute of Strategic Studies, arranged a meeting with some leading Pakistani strategic analysts on June 22.

Mr. Aga Shahi, former foreign minister of Pakistan and chairman of the institute, made a brief presentation on the strategic relations between Pakistan, India, and China, with the role of the US getting due coverage. Issues like 1971 and the need for cooperation among the Saarc countries also came up.

On 1971 there was the typical reticence on the part of the Pakistani participants; an understandable willingness to express regrets, but falling short of taking a clear position. During informal discussion, Mr. Shahi termed the Pakistani policy in 1971 "short sighted," drawing a buzz of disagreement from across the table. It was really difficult to comprehend that a man like Mr. Shahi could not see anything beyond "short sightedness" in the policy that led to the bifurcation of his country. But there was a general agreement that time had come to face up to the truths of 1971.

The dialogue then veered on to less sensitive areas. Here Mr. Shahi and other analysts gave an account of how the strategic priorities might be addressed by China, India, and Pakistan in the future, the big question being the latest Sino-Indian patch up. On our side Mr. Asafuddowlah (Editor, Bangladesh Today), Dr. Humayun Kabir (Director, BIISS) and Dr. Amina Mohsin, (Chairperson of the Department of International Relations, DU), presented thoughtful analyses of the strategic concerns of the region as a whole. Their presentations were fully appreciated and applauded by the audience.

Then came the visa issue, which suddenly made all the talk of openness and intense interaction sound hollow. The Pakistan High Commission in Dhaka has reduced the number of visas issued every day. Mr. Shahi admitted that politicians' promises of opening up were not reflected in practice.

We were on our way to Bhurban on the morning of June 23. The journey along the meandering road at an altitude of more than 4,000 feet was exciting . Bhurban is the new resort along the road to Muzzafarabad which is likely to compete with Murree as a quiet hill station. Murree is now saddled with too much construction, no longer a place that the British lords were so fond of in the dim and distant past. From Bhurban you can have a clear view of the mountains that seem to grow larger and larger as you move up the road to Muzaffarabad. There was no intellectual exercise at Bhurban, for a change! We returned to Islamabad in the evening.

The next morning we proceeded along the same road to reach Chokothi, 215km from Islamabad. The road runs parallel to the river Neelum up to a place known as Kohala. We were given armed escort as we entered the Pakistani side of Kashmir. Chokothi is a remarkably quiet place as the latest peace move between Pakistan and India has had its sobering influence on the valley of discord.

We drove another 10 minutes to reach the Line of Control (LoC). There are bunkers on either side of the line that looked a bit out of place in the lush green hills which make a perfect combination of scenic beauty, with the river Jhelum flowing at a fast pace down the valley. Much of the beauty is however marred by the thought that Kashmir has been a bone of contention between Pakistan and India for nearly 60 years. Anyhow, India and Pakistan have introduced a bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad and Kashmiris have welcomed it with great expectations.

On the morning of the 26th we flew to Lahore, the cultural capital of Pakistan. I had heard a lot about this great Mughal city since my boyhood and was quite excited by the prospect of visiting it. The weather, however, was not on our side. It was very hot and we saw a large number people comforting themselves in the canal that runs through the city. We went to Anarkali, the ancient shopping area. The shopkeepers were friendly and warm as we found in other places also. I was a bit disappointed because the market was not what I had imagined. The disappointment was more than compensated for when we visited the Badshahi Mosque and the Lahore Fort. These are the places that instantly take you back to the age of Mughal grandeur.

We were invited to the office of the daily News. There was a lengthy discussion on exchange of information between the two countries. The point that we tried to make is that there was little coverage of Bangladesh in the Pakistani newspapers.

The trip to the Wagah border with India revealed an interesting side of the Indo-Pak relationship. The flag lowering ceremony has been held since October 11, 1948. The border guards try to outsmart each other in drills before a large audience on either side of the border. The songs add to the air of festivity. The patriotic zeal is unmistakable. But it is so much unlike the LoC -- there is throb of life in every activity undertaken during the ceremony. It is the route that Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee took when he visited Lahore in 1999. The spirit of friendship and bonhomie is quite noticeable, and that's something that India and Pakistan can cash in on to ensure durable peace.

Back to Karachi. It has its charm as the biggest city of Pakistan. We met Mr. Hamid Haroon at the Dawn office. He was in a reflective mood and preferred to talk more about Bangladeshi art, giving the mundane business of the media only a few minutes at the very end. We were happy to learn that our leading artists had many fans in Pakistan.

Very interesting was the short meeting with Mr. Aslam Imran at Geo Television -- a private channel. He was frank and open. The conversation ranged from press freedom in Pakistan to our recent cricket triumph over Australia.

And that was our last appointment. Seven days of travelling and meeting people ended, as we got ready to take the early morning flight back home.

Jamilur Rahman is Assistant Editor of The Daily Star.