This refers to the recent dialogue between the Foreign Secretaries of India and Pakistan. As an observer of Kashmir, I find that the talks have once again failed to yield anything concrete with regard to Kashmir. For the past many years, India  and Pakistan are talking a lot about Confidence Building Measures to be taken vis-à-vis Kashmir. But on ground either the CBMs are not taken or those which are taken are not implemented fully. The Cross Border CBMs have failed because the lack of will in the political leadership of both India and Pakistan. The trade, which was started across LoC few years back, hasn’t picked up. The people to people contact is very less. The Cross Border CBMs were aimed at creating better relations between the two countries. But it has not happened. The traders of Cross LoC trade often take to streets against the lack of facilities like banking etc. But nobody is listening to them. Starting the trade is not enough. It was important to gradually throw the road open for normal vehicular traffic. So there is nothing new that has come out of the Indo-Pak dialogue. Both the countries need to go beyond CBMs on Kashmir and other issues. There has to be a monitoring mechanism on the decision taken in such meetings. Otherwise everything seems to be the eyewash aimed at hoodwinking the international community.
Majid Khan
New Delhi 

Lastupdate on : Thu, 30 Jun 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 30 Jun 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 1 Jul 2011 00:00:00 IST