‘Unimpeded talks only way for lasting detente between Pakistan, India’

Around 70 sessions on various topics of literary, cultural, educational and political matters were convened at the Karachi Literature Festival (KLF) 2018 which ended on Sunday.

One of the sessions held on the final day was titled ‘Love Thy Neighbour: India-Pakistan Relations’. The discussants were Mani Shankar Aiyar, former Indian Consul General in Karachi; Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, former ambassador to the United States and High Commissioner in India; and Asad Sayeed. The session was moderated by former professor of international relations at the Karachi University, Khalida Ghaus.

Aiyar, who set the ball rolling with his speech, said that the only way to achieve a meaningful and lasting détente between India and Pakistan was uninterruptible dialogue. He equated his efforts to bring about a lasting change with the ‘Myth of Sisyphus’, where Sisyphus pushes a large rock up a mountain to make it to the summit and each time it slipped down.

He said that if Partition had not occurred, there would have been 600 million Muslims living together in the subcontinent. “What a massive force they would they have been,” he remarked.

“I cannot be an Indian till I can integrate all the 200 million Indian Muslims fully into India, for which the biggest imperative is good ties with Pakistan.” Aiyar added that, happily enough, he had sensed a highly positive change. He said that the generation of Pakistanis that was there on August 14, 1947, had passed on and 85 percent of those on both sides of the divide were the ones who were not eyewitnesses to the horrors of the time. As such, he stated, their attitude was different and more conciliatory.

Former ambassador Ashraf Jehangir Qazi spoke of the need to change the existing narrative. He said that in order to have meaningful ties with neighbours, we had to first set our own house in order.

He said that we had ignored the most vital of domestic issues, which could spell doom for us. He cited the projected population increase to 400 million by 2050 and asked whether Pakistan had made provisions for that massive rise.

Qazi cited the non-provision of potable water to the masses, puny health facilities, the gaping socio-economic disparity and other such things which, he said, were gnawing away at the vitals of society. Asad Sayeed was of the opinion that the best way for a Pakistan-India détente was to start off normal trade relations.

Fiction and politics

Earlier in the day, there was a session titled ‘Fiction Has the Power to Affect Politics’. The discussants were Qaisra Shahraz from the UK; poetess Kishwar Naheed; Kesho Scott from the US; Claire Chambers from the UK; Arfa Syeda Zehra, a professor of Urdu at FC College, Lahore; and Sarvat Hasin.

Syeda Arfa Zehra was the first speaker and, as is characteristic of her, she started off on a very humorous note accompanied by very satirical facial expressions. She said, “Our politics is wrapped in fiction. It is ‘I’, ‘me’, and ‘for me’ as far as our politicians are concerned. They fantasise on power the way they do in fairy tales,” she said.

Qaisra Shahraz said, “Politicians come and go but their lies linger.” Claire Chambers cited the case of the Arab Spring, whereby Egyptian writer Al-Aswani had authored a novel the theme of which was that democracy was the only way out for the Arab countries. Just a year later, she said, the work of fiction turned into a piece of reality.

Kesho Scott said that politics and fiction went hand-in-hand. Author Kamila Shamsie said, “A sick author can make a nation sick.”