Pakistan and India have resumed Track II talks in Singapore, according to reports appearing in the Held Kashmir press, where secret talks have been held between diplomats and military officers of the two countries. The talks went on for two days and ended without any joint statement, or any agreement, beyond an accord to meet again. The holding of the talks show that Pakistan has not given up on Indian goodwill, though it had a very practical demonstration of it by India’s refusal to obey the decision of the international court when it refused to amend the designs for the Kishenganga project, thus disobeying its own solemn treaty agreements under the Indus Waters Treaty and continuing its theft of Pakistan’s share of the Indus waters duly granted to it under the treaty. A letter about this refusal to obey the treaty was sent by the Pakistani Indus Waters Commissioner to the Indian High Commissioner, which also warned that if India did not change its attitude, the matter might have to be referred to neutral experts. It said that Pakistan could not endanger its interests.
With India apparently not satisfied with the Kashmir dispute as a barrier to peace with Pakistan, it has gone ahead with its water terrorism, using water from the disputed territory to convert Pakistan into a desert. Under these circumstances, Islamabad is hardly justified in its supine participation in the USA-driven bid to reconcile with India, which includes the latest Track II effort, just as it did the previous ones.
It hardly needs pointing out that if the Kashmir issue was resolved according to the will of the Kashmiri people, the water dispute would disappear, because India would lose its ability to do what it wanted with the headwaters of the Indus. Therefore, if the only purpose of the Track II process is to make Indian hegemony acceptable to Pakistan, there is no purpose in continuing it. This is aside from the fact that Track II diplomacy is not right in principle. First, diplomacy should be left to the diplomats. Second, any agreement will not have official sanction: neither do the interlocutors have any official authority to commit their country nor reliable channels to the real decision-makers. The attempt by Pakistan to talk to revive a channel which has failed in the past will only be used by India to argue that Pakistan is not serious about the water dispute.