Do you expect Pakistan to blame her own nationals and punish them concurrent to following a policy of proxy war and terrorism? Temporary lulls are mere tactical pauses, some under pressure, and this should not deceive us.

Despite Shahid Afridi’s caustic comments of Indians not being large hearted, Indo-Pak cricket bonhomie appears set for revival with a bilateral series in the offing. However, the diplomatic impasse over punishing the perpetrators of 26/11 is unlikely to be resolved for a very long time even if India gives Pakistan full insight into the Samjhauta Express train blast case. The underlying cause is the undeniable complicity of the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) and Pakistani military in the Mumbai terror strike. Mohammad Ajmal Qasab admits that “26/11 Mumbai attack terrorists were trained by Pakistani Marines”.

More recently, David Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana confirmed ISI complicity in 26/11 attacks. Unfortunately, global pressure is directly linked to individual national interests. Surely, US would have had the Headley- Rana revelations of 26/11 ISI complicity with them for some time but its release was timed with the visit of ISI Chief Shuja Pasha to counter the Raymond Davis episode.

British Prime Minister, David Cameron was outspoken last year in decrying Pakistan for sponsoring terrorism in India and Afghanistan but was observed making amends this month on a visit to Pakistan. Pakistan is a weak democracy with actual power with the Military-ISI who continue a policy of hostility with India for retaining their strangle-hold over governance. LeT (Lashkar-e-Toiba) is the covert arm of ISI, its terrorist camps intact in PoK. Indians are targeted in Afghanistan courtesy ISI.

On becoming President, Asif Ali Zardari went on record to say, “Militancy and extremism were deliberately created and nurtured as a policy to achieve some short-term tactical objective.” Having said this, he ordered ISI to be brought under the Interior Ministry but reversed his orders within 24 hours when pressurized by the Army Chief. At the India-Afghanistan-Pakistan Trialogue held at Kabul last year, majority civilian members of the Pakistani delegation kept stressing the need to “strengthen the civilian government in Pakistan”.

The moot question is can Pakistan ever have true democracy? Witness the recent anti-India outburst of terrorist Mullah Hafiz Saeed in an open forum, the LeT/JuD (Jamaat-ud-Dawa) having full backing of the ISI-Military combine and support of even China at the UN. Witness the full blown radicalization of Pakistan with some 32,000 madrassas churning out over one million radicals annually, daylight assassinations of Governor Salman Taseer and Minister Shabaz Bhatti (a Christian) providing further proof.

Pakistan, supported by China, is unlikely to change its jihadi strategy against India. Witness the assassination of Maulana Showkat Ahmed Shah in Srinagar engineered by the LeT on April 8 since he backed talks for peace and opposed stone-pelting on the streets. Witness China’s strategic footprints in Pakistan and PoK – advising Taliban how to fight NATO, some 11,000 (PLA) doing 14 projects in PoK and flouting their presence close to the Line of Control. While another country may not like foreign troops on its soil, Chinese presence in Pakistan and PoK should not surprise us in a country whose Prime Minister was prepared to eat grass in order to get the bomb. Pakistan can be expected to accommodate China to any extent in the belief she will be safe from Indian air strikes in the event of more 26/11s.

How then can the 26/11 diplomatic impasse break is anybody’s guess. Do you expect Pakistan to blame her own nationals and punish them concurrent to following a policy of proxy war and terrorism? Temporary lulls are mere tactical pauses, some under pressure, and this should not deceive us. But while we question when the 26/11 diplomatic impasse will break and Pakistan punishes the culprits, should we not be asking ourselves when will Qasab be hanged and what about the 1993 Mumbai train blasts accused? Does anybody have the answers?

(The views expressed in this article are the personal views of the writer)