Siachen and our leaders

It is a week since Pakistan army suffered a dramatic loss when a huge avalanche swept over a base camp at Gayari sector in Siachen. Since then every body has been praying for a miracle that saves the 139 people, including 128 soldiers, who lay under the gargantuan mass of ice God knows in what condition. As yet no progress has been made in retrieving the precious bodies that are sacred enough to be cried for.

This giant tragedy has brought cries from all sides of demilitarizing Siachen which has engulfed billions of dollars and hundreds of precious lives since this seemingly useless standoff began with the Indian army in April 1984. This is ironically sinister since it is in April 28 years later when our brave soldiers lie there under giant body of cruel ice that can take life out of anything that is roaring with energy and activity only moments earlier.

The good thing is that many of these voices belong to the people who matter. The most prominent ones are Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan. Nawaz Sharif has said without any hesitation that our government should not look towards Indian government waiting for what they do. He believes that we should do it on our own if the Indians are not willing to go ahead with the demilitarizing. This is good since he enjoys a lot of clout in Pakistan. This statement of his echoes 1997 talks between Pakistan and India as well as reminds one of nuclear tests that he carried in response to those made by India. It can be safely projected that if he wins the next elections in Pakistan he will be making a lot more effort than before to engage India in talks on various levels. This might include the eight-point agenda agreed with the Indian government in 1997 before he was ousted by Musharraf.

Imran Khan is of the view that this should not be a unilateral step. He must be seeing through the eyes of a captain and weighing the pros and cons of this 'move'. He seems eager for Pakistan army to pull out of this lethal adventure that is doing no good to our 'jawans' but only if the other side reciprocates our move. At the moment he is thinking as a strategist though the burden of this loss clearly weighs heavy on him like on every other Pakistani who thinks highly of our brave forces.

Another voice that I will call more important than the preceding two is of the General Ashfaq Pervez kayani who said that he is highly in favour of talks with India and a decrease in defense budget. He thinks that development and defense should go hand in hand. Defense as well as development along with spending on the people of a country is important for the strength at the national level.

Last but not the least the President's visit to India hold a lot of importance in its own right as well as in the context of what is happening now. It seems that the Nature also agreed with him and a sort of aided him on his tour to India by bringing about the fatal incident, enlarging the futility of Siachen to a proprotion that it can no longer be ignored by any of us.

This brings us to the conclusion that the leaders of Pakistan are heading towards a maturer look on different issues affecting Pakistan. It seems they have learnt from the past especially the most recent incident owing to which many issues have burst themselves onto the scene. A new era appears to be in brewing when the Pakistani masses will be the main focus of the policies our government make in the near future.