The central theme of Pakistan’s first-ever National Security Policy that is scheduled to be unveiled by Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday, will be peace with India and its immediate neighbours
The 100-page policy document has also put out elaborate plans to open trade and business ties with India without final settlement of the Kashmir issue, Pakistan-based newspaper Express Tribune reported on Tuesday quoting an official.
“Only a part of the national security policy will be made public,” the official clarified, saying in the rest of the world such policies often remained classified.
The official stressed that normalising commercial relations is contingent upon achieving progress in talks between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
We are not seeking hostility with India for the next 100 years. The new policy seeks peace with immediate neighbours,” the official, who is associated with the development, was quoted as saying.
“Economic security will be the central theme of the new national security policy…. But geo-economics does not necessarily mean we overlook our geo-strategic and geo-political interests,” the official said.
The official further said that the Kashmir issue with India has been identified as a ‘vital national policy’ issue for Pakistan.
The official, however, clarified that there were no prospects of rapprochement with India under the current Modi-led government in New Delhi.
The country’s new National Security Policy would act as an umbrella document, to be used as a guideline for Pakistan`s foreign, international and defence related policies, he said.
Pakistan and India have mostly been at loggerheads with each other throughout history.
During the first term of Narendra Modi in 2014, the relations took a positive turn when he announced his intentions to have cordial relations with Pakistan.
He had also visited Islamabad in 2015 unannounced to attend a marriage ceremony in Sharif’s family.
However, the relations between the two countries turned south following the horrific 2016 Uri attacks in which four terrorists launched grenade attacks on Indian Army soldiers in the Indian’s Jammu and Kashmir on 18 September.
The attack killed 19 soldiers and injured 19–30 others. It was reported as “the deadliest attack on security forces in Kashmir in two decades”.
Pakistan-based terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed was involved in the planning and execution of the attack.