Hmmm.. tough question to answer and writing on kashmir is always a dicey venture. Pakistan essentially emphasizes Kashmir as a muslim and human rights issue to demonstrate to itself and the world at large that the 1947 split with India was right. That precept would be challenged if there was peace with india. This feeling is not going to stop until pakistan stops looking to India for self-justification. It has failed spectacularly on almost on all other fronts at self-definition. Islam was thought to be a solution for identity, but the point is such a solution is hardly viable if sunnis and shias continue to be at each other's throats as they frequently are.
Nor can pakistan define itself through a sense of history, because india assumed the history of the subcontinent during partition. From it's birth it has no past except the one which has belonged to india. Save for the army it has no other institutions to boast of, which would have been helpful to plan the nation's future. India which is the reason behind the birth of pakistan remains a terrible burden. Pakistan understandably is desperate to find another reason to live, and the search goes forlornly on. Pakistan also is wary about attempts to discredit whatever is left of the 2-nation theory, which suffered a mortal blow in 1971. Hence it pursues conflict with india.
It is more to do with the survival and identity of the nation more than anything else. pakistan has lost because ,due to it's vast military expenditure it has all but bankrupted itself. Passions over kashmir have blinded pakistan to the insanity of what it has done and the damage it has suffered in the process. Democracy remains a mirage and after 57 years the nation still is clueless about it's identity,notwithstanding frequent pakistani bluster regarding who they are. It has all the markings of a failing state.
This in a nutshell would explain why those folks across the border are so besotted with the vale.
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Nice one. Interesting view point.
-Karthick.
2-nation theory was discredited in 1971 all right. Wasn't it re-credited in Gujarat 2002 ?
When you say : "Pakistan understandably is desperate to find another reason to live, and the search goes forlornly on. .......Hence it pursues conflict with india.
It is more to do with the survival and identity of the nation more than anything else"
you seem to portray it as individual choices mulled over dinner tables: 'guys we are nothing so let'sgo out and hate them indians'. Hey !
Hey weekly pundit, how long is your week ? Why the lull ?
While agreeing in sum with your rather clear analysis, as opposed to the liberal wooly-headedness (or probably a plain lack of sight, not just foresight) which passes for incisive analysis in our benighted land, there are probably a few more things which could be added to buttress the argument of a Nation in search of a raison-de-etre for its existence. Consider for instance, that just before the Vale became so "hot", it was Punjab which experienced the same heat, and it is rather difficult to argue, no matter how blind one is, that Punjabi's constitute an "oppressed" minority or have something in common with Pakistan (other than a physical border).
It is really self-evident to all but those who,Ostrich-like, wish to bury their heads in the sand, that India has a major problem, and that it is Pakistan, not Kashmir or Punjab or the North East. Unless we decide upon an approach to address this problem, we are as unlikely to be successful in this as in our other important problems.
But then, our Poverty of Sight, Vision, and whatever-passes-for-governance, in the broadest sense, is probably as responsible for our plight as is our oft-cited lack of Strength.
A question more important than why Pakistan is obsessed by the Vale could be:
Why is India so negative and defensive in its reactions to issues in both the Vale and in general, in relations with our basket-case of a neighbour ?
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