Written by:

Muhammad Raza

Topic:
Musharaff’s Foreign Policy towards India

Abstract
After having a common history and culture for long centuries, the Muslims and the Hindus of
subcontinent could not being able to live together. Many political nationalist leaders of
subcontinent tried to create the consensus between Hindus and Muslims and try to bring them
closer but these efforts of national leaders or unable to unite them. The gap of division was so
vast that it led to the partition of subcontinent. This bloody partition provided few unresolved
conflicts as a result of partition and these issues further aggravated the fire of hate. The conflicts
paved the way for the four major wars between the newly born states Such as the Kashmir war of
1948, the war of 1965, the war of 1971 and the war of Kargil 1999.These cataclysmic wars
forced these economically fragile politically unstable and socially divided states to become a
nuclear pioneer and they did it. Many peace initiatives were taken to normalize the relations
between neighbor states such as Agra Smith composite dialogue Samjhauta Express etc. But for
an acute period of time relations were peaceful but the layer of terrorism engulfed the peace
negotiation process between them. After 9/11 Pakistan changed its policy towards India and also
Pakistan changed its policy after the attack on Indian parliament. These events never let indo-
Pakistan relations to enter into peaceful phase of relations for long time.

Introduction
After the birth of Pakistan and India as the two independent states on the global map they tried to
have a good and smooth foreign policy measureson the several issues such as the issue of land air
and water.Despite having the same history of centuries they had many conflicts cultural
ideological and religious basis.The partition plan of subcontinent put fuel to the fire on the
enmity of Hindus and Muslims which have different culture on the basis of Hindu and Muslim
religion. the enemy was based on several differences of culture traditions language religion and
some unequal distribution of resources. The partition of subcontinent in 1947 the main issue of
Kashmir state aroused and then it followed a series of conflicts and skirmishes between these two
newly formed states on the global map. So the president of Pakistan general Pervez Musharraf
had played a significant role in decreasing the ignition between India and Pakistan merely on the
behalf of his foreign policy including a series of flexible way to deal all the problems between
these two states.The harshness due to the wars of 1948, 1965, 1971 and 1999 couldn’t be
completely eliminated but got in control during the era ofGeneral Pervez Musharraf due to the
flexible behavior of foreign policy. But if we have a look on the journal Pervez Musharraf’s
foreign policy in the realistic scope then it will all be clear that Pakistan has tried to make Jammu
Kashmir at least a nominal part of Pakistan through the four point formula of general Musharraf.
From the historical and political perspective we can analyze a zigzag series of relations between
India and Pakistan (from 1999 argil issue, 2001 World Trade Organization Attack issue, attack
on Indian parliament in 2001 and again restoration of relations in 2003 to again ceased relations
after Samjhota express attack in 2006. Moreover the waves of terrorism during the era show the
interest of other States and their benefits and disadvantages in the smooth Foreign Relations of
India and Pakistan. The slogan of “cross border terrorism”,“decisive battle” and “teach Pakistan
lesson” changed to the Bus Service from Delhi to Lahore and bilateral relationsduring the
Musharraf era. And finally with the change of Pakistani president in 2007 and also from the
changing leadership of India in 2004 (end of vejpayee) seized the goldenroads of relations and
peace.

Application of IR Theories
There are huge amount of international theories related to the state relations these international
theories are presented by many theorists such as Han. J Morgenthau Frederick Schumann,
Nicolas Je Spykman and Reinhold Niebuhr. The most suitable theory through which we can
analyze the Pakistan’s foreign policy towards India is the theory given by Morgenthau in this
theory he presented 6 points the most applicable point is that “statesman thinks and act in terms
of interest defined by power”. During the ruling Era of General Pervez Musharraf only acted for
the interest of the state of Pakistan. He also raised the slogan of “Pakistan first”. If we critically
analyze the Musharaff’s era foreign policy of Pakistan towards India we could find that he was
not ready to compromise in Kashmir. Rather he presented four point agenda which was a best
solution of the issue. Through his four point agenda he influenced the Indian leadership. during
his time of rule he many times tried to cooperate with the Indian authorities through peace talks,
through Samjhota express because he only thinks for the interest of the state of Pakistan. Even at
a press conference he stated that he will answer in the same tone as India do.
Another point of Morgenthau is that (states do not compromise on national security and status
quo). This point of Morgenthau is very applicable to the Musharraf period of rule and his
government relations with India. We can explain this point by citing the incident of attack on
Indian parliament by terrorists in 2001. After this terrorist attack India blamed Pakistan for cross
border terrorism in India and Indian authorities showed aggression by putting the huge amount of
military force at the western border. So this was an issue of national security for Pakistan. In
response to that Pakistan also put huge amount of military forces at its eastern border. Both the
countries were at the verge of war fortunately they, again, come to table talks to solve their issues
through peaceful means but they still remained failed.1
Historical Evolution of Indo-Pak Relations
Pakistan and India always have the relationship of misunderstanding they do not have any faith
in one another. They don’t have confidence enough to take any decision for the betterment of
their relations. Therefore various amount of historical political and cultural happenings Occurred

in the way of India and Pakistan Foreign Relations. So the Foreign Relations between India and
Pakistan had remained disputed. in 1947 the national independence of both countries was full of
violence and conflict. And this violent independence paved way further for bad political social
and territorial happenings. During the period of independence Quaid e Azam said that we Azam
(both independent states) live like a peaceful neighbors and always wanted friendly relations
with one another. And wanted to promote trade and commerce between India and Pakistan Away
similar sort of words were said by Nehru in the session of Indian parliament where he stated “we
cannot be enemies forever and good relations are better than fightings”. After the independence
both India and Pakistan started their diplomatic relations unfortunately few territorial and
political issues put hand in the development of peaceful relations between the newly born states.
After independence the Indian Hindu leadership was not willing to accept the state of Pakistan as
the independent country rather they wanted to destroy or remove the state of Pakistan from the
world map.2

From that day of independence both states do not trust on one another and they formulated their
relations on the basis of fear security and mistrust. Unluckily the deterioration of relations do not
stop here. Both the states fought three major wars of 1948, 1965 and 1971 and also in 1990s they
were also engaged in a military conflict in kargil. The list does not include the daily clashes or
military standoff at line of control.
The main bone of contention between these two states is the conflict of Kashmir the long term
hanging issue further destroyed the relations between these states. Longstanding unresolved
problems between the India and Pakistan put these South Asian states into the arm race. This arm
race includes the acquisition of nuclear arms and many other strategic weapons. This nuclear
arms race between India and Pakistan made the South Asia a dangerous zone and and unstable
region of the world. And the International Society is also concerned about the nuclear arm race in
South Asia. it's been 74 years after independence but both of these states still did not made any
progressive move to make the relations peaceful and stable.

Foreign policy of Pakistan towards India in Musharraf era:

Foreign policy of any country includes its ideology and its objectives and on the basis of these
objectives one country determines its relations with another country. The foreign policy of
Pakistan is that it wanted to maintain friendly relations with the states of word and particularly

1 G.E. Daniel, “ Contending Theories of International Relations”, J.B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, New
York, 1971.
2 J. Oimstead, “India-Pakistan Relations: A Destructive Equilibrium,” The Diplomat, November 2, 2014.
Pakistan want to create relations with its neighbors on the basis of goodwill and peace. Pakistan
and India has had Foreign Relations with one another because these both states have major
conflicts over following things such as water conflicts, territorial claims, Siachen sector, and Sir
Creek border issue. Until the solution of these conflicts the India Pakistan relations are not going
to be improved. During the dictatorship Musharraf made few positive moves to improve the
relations with Indian and other states of the world. Hurt in his policies he didn’t compromise and
sovereignty and security of the state.3

As president of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan he stated the foreign policy of Pakistan in a
media press conference that “war would be met with war, peace would be met with peace, threat
with be met with threat but he would not compromise on the honor and security of the nation”.
General Pervaiz Musharraf placed vital importance on Kashmir issue in Pakistan foreign policy.
The incident of 9/11 brought a major shift in the foreign policy of Pakistan and this incident
placed Pakistan in the block of America. And Pakistan was at the forefront during the war
against terror.
And another major incident that changed the Foreign Relations of Pakistan towards India was the
terrorist attack on Indian parliament in 2001. Lashkar Taiba (LeT) and Jaish e Mohammed (JeM)
was the main perpetrators. This incident further ignited the fire of tension between India and
Pakistan. This attack on the Indian parliament caused the military standoff 2001-2. And with the
passage of time the composite dialogue in 2004. 4

The 2001 Agra summit

The process of peace dark once again started through Agra summit in 2002. There is the narrative
that general Musharraf against the will of civilian government forces supported by the militants
based in Pakistan for the cross border activities in the Indian occupied Kashmir. And India
named this activity the cross border terrorism. India reacted by developing huge military force at
the western border. The president general Pervez Musharraf called the Indian Prime Minister and
expressed his serious sympathies over the Cause of Gujarat and Kutch earthquakes. On 25 th May
2001 Indian Prime Minister called the president Musharraf for the summit talks and president
Musharraf accepted the invitation and went to India to attend the summit offered by the Prime
Minister of India. The leaders of both countries met at Agra summit to formulate a bilateral
solution for the longstanding issue of Kashmir. The Agra summit include four rounds of talks but
both the parties were not ready to compromise is on one and other. So finally the talks end with
no solution. But this Agra summit was a ray of hope in the normalization of the Foreign
Relations with India. Also India and Pakistan agreed to talk in future and opened the doors.5

3 M. Bukhtiar, "Pakistan’s foreign policy towards India in Musharraf Era," Parliament Times, January 11, 2017
4 F. Akhtar, "Pakistan’s Foreign Policy towards India during Musharraf Era", MPhil dissertation, University of the
Punjab, Lahore, 2016.
5 Z. Abbas, "When Pakistan and India went to war over Kashmir in 1999," The Herald, February 17, 2017.
Indo Pak relations: Post 9/11
On 11 September 2001 terrorists attacked the United States of America. And after that incident
Americans declared war against terror in the whole world. The Americans invaded the
Afghanistan because they accused al Qaeda for the terrorist attacks. Pakistan also joined the bloc
of global war against terror as the forefront state. President of Pakistan general Perez Musharraf
took his decision to crush the bases of al Qaeda in Afghanistan and hence he helped the
Americans to do same. After the attack of 9/11, the relations between Pakistan and India changed
particularly after the attack on Indian parliament. Because of this incident India stop all sorts of
links with Pakistan and accused Pakistan for the cross border terrorism and cut all the diplomatic
lines to Pakistan. And India placed huge amount of military forces at the border. Due to the
involvement of Pakistan in cross border terror the planned visit of Indian Prime Minister to

Pakistan was also canceled. Hence the way to solve this weird type of Kashmir issue between
Pakistan and India suddenly stopped. Being involved in terrorist attack on Indian parliament in
2001 Pakistan was charged with some penalties.6

Indian charge sheet to Musharraf

They were following demands put forward by the Indian authorities to Pakistan during the
Musharraf era after the attack on Indian parliament in 2002.
➢ Hand over the 21 terrorist involved in the attack on Indian parliament which are currently
living in Pakistan.
➢ Pakistan must stop supporting terrorist outfits in Indian occupied Kashmir.
➢ Terrorism should be band categorically and unequivocally.7
This list of demands also includes the mastermind of attack on Indian parliament the Jaish e
Mohammed (JeM) and Lashkar Taiba (LeT).
In response to these demands Pakistan rejected all the demands and stated that it will provide
investigation for evidences. At this time both India and Pakistan based and developed their forces
at line of control and remained there for many months. Pakistani state tried all sorts of efforts to
stop and eliminate the sorts of terrorist outfits from involving in terrorist activities in occupied
Kashmir. This act of Pakistan was considered as the major move of Pakistani state toward India.
Pakistan as an independent state stated that the state of Pakistan will not allow any sort of
terrorist outfits to use its land against any other country. But according to the Indian authorities
they argue that Pakistan has not taken any practical measures to destroy the infrastructure of
terrorist organizations living in Pakistan. As a response to this statement Pakistani authorities
stated that Pakistan has banned and eliminated many terrorist organizations in Pakistan. 8

6 H.S.Rothstein, Afghanistan and the Troubled Future of Unconventional Warfare (New Delhi: Manas Publications,
2006).
7 M.A. Bashir and M Ahmed, "Pak-India Relations during Musharraf Era Behavioral Study of Leadership" Berkeley
Journal of Social Sciences 3 (2013)
8 A. Sattar, Pakistan's Foreign Policy (1947-2005) (Oxford University Press, 2007).
In 2003
During the year of 2003 Indian Prime Minister provided few confidence building measures to
lessen the aggravated atmosphere between two states. Few steps were taken such as reopen of
airspaces and these steps initiated the talks. Pakistani Prime Minister ZafarullahJamali took the
hand of friendship from Indian Prime Minister. To destroy the process of normalization of
relations the terrorist outfits planted a bomb blast in New Delhi this blast destroyed the inception
of LOC. 9

Revival of composite dialogue: 2004

Since 2003 considerable amount of progress was made on the issue of Kashmir this progress
includes the bus diplomacy and people to people diplomacy. During these years it was planned
that a similar bus service must be started across LOC. And the reopening of railway through
Wagh border was also a step that was taken at that period of time. Pakistani president general
Pervaiz Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister agreed that they will continue the composite tasks
are dialogues for the resolution of Kashmir issue. Unfortunately Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee
lost the power. Another round of talks started with the Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh.
The results of the first composite tasks were that both countries agreed to withdraw their
military forces from Siachen sector. And also demarcated the boundary in the Runn of Kutch
The results of second round include the ban of nuclear armed tests and missile tests. At the
third round the agenda of Kashmir was discussed.
Early 2006 the Indian Pakistan relations were moving towards the right direction because at
Havana 2006 both leaders agreed to adopt a joint procedure for counterterrorism.
Since the independence of India and Pakistan the Kashmir territorial conflict is the bone of
contention between Pakistan and India. Since the end dependence there's been 74 years and these
bold states failed to formulate a bilateral conclusion of the unresolved agenda. The longevity of
this conflict is that both India and Pakistan project a different point of view on the Kashmir issue.
Pakistan as a part of its Kashmir policy put the Kashmir issue on international arena and in
response to that India use I repressive measures. It was the president general Pervaiz Musharraf
who moved the agenda of Kashmir further from the created position in the history of Pakistan. 10
The president general Pervaiz Musharraf made rational move to resolve the Kashmir policy.
Such as general Perez Musharraf himself called the Indian Prime Minister and stated that “we are
for the United Nations Security council resolution however we have kept that thing aside and if
we want the solution of Kashmir both of us have to show some kind of flexibility beyond the
established stance on the issue”.

Musharaff’s 4-point agenda

On December 5 2006 president general Pervaiz Musharraf presented his 4-point agenda, his four
point agenda has following points;
9 F. Ashraf, "Jammu and Kashmir Dispute: Examining various Proposals for Its Resolution," CSS Forum, June 18,
2015.
10 M. Bukhtiar, "Pakistan’s foreign policy towards India in Musharraf Era," Parliament Times, January 11, 2017.
 1. Withdrawal of military forces from the point of Kashmir by both players; India and
Pakistan.
2. LOC will remain unchanged but the citizenry of Jammu and Kashmir are allowed to
travel freely from both sides across the LOC.
3. Self governance status will be given to Kashmir and not the independence. It means that
Kashmir will have electoral and parliamentary representation But will be subordinate to
the two states Pakistan and Kashmir.

4. For the regulation of affairs there will be a joint boundary of supervision which includes
the representatives of Kashmir, representatives of Pakistan and representatives of India. 11
My providing 4 point agenda on Kashmir conflict general Pervez Musharraf influenced the
Indian leadership and even the Indian leadership was agreed to execute the four point agenda.
And for that purpose a backdoor diplomacy was under process.

Samjhota Express Attack and aftermath environment; 2007

118 February 2007, a group of terrorists launched a bomb attack on some express which used to
provide twice weekly railway service between the New Delhi (India) and Lahore in Pakistan.
The train was carrying Pakistani passengers and 68 passengers were dead as a result of this
terrorist attack. This intention behind this attack was to create disruption is the peace negotiation
between India and Pakistan. This incident took place just two days before the visit of Pakistani
foreign minister who was to reach at Delhi. Initially the Indian leadership declared that this
attack was schemed by Pakistani intelligence agency ISI. But later it was found that this attack
was launched by the terrorists of Hindutva extremists.
Although Pakistani authorities acted normally and asked Indian government to take proper and
strict measures to destroy the terrorism, And the foreign minister argued that this terrorist attack
would not stop the peace process between India and Pakistan. The foreign minister of Pakistan
visited India for completion of the process. During a press conference the president of Pakistan
general Pervaiz Musharraf argued that they will not let anyone (Terrorist outfits)to Sabotage the
ongoing peace negotiation process.12

Year 2007 and Musharraf lost days in Power

The year 2007 was the last year of General Pervaiz Musharraf in power in Republic of Pakistan.
In these last years at domestic level he took you offensive decisions like crack down on Lal
Masjid Islamabad and his measures against the judicial system of Pakistan caused him to lose

11 Ali, N. “General Musharraf’s four-point formula can provide an effective roadmap in Kashmir”. An Interview
with Prof Abdul Ghani Bhat.Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies,
2011.http://www.ipcs.org/pdf_file/issue/SR99BhatInterview.pdf
12 Y. P. Rajesh, "At least 66 killed in India-Pakistan train blast," Reuters, February 19, 2007,
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-pakistantrainidUSDEL34195220070219
power, Otherwise he was a strong dictator. These two mega actions of General Pervaiz
Musharraf turn the citizens politically analyst against him. Add foreign level the Indian political
leadership started to lose trust on president general Pervaiz Musharraf because of the terrorist
attacks in India. At the end the general elections of 2008 took place and Pakistan People Party
took the majority mandate and the civilian government was established after 10 years of military
dictatorship. And hence general Pervaiz Musharraf lost power in 2007 as a result the smooth
ways towards a smooth foreign policy towards India stopped with the emergence of new
leadership under PPP.

Recommendation

After having a look on the previous discussion on the relations of Pakistan state with the state of
India we can see that there is a zigzag type of relations between these two neighboring states of
South Asia. at some points the relation became smoother but on some points we can see the
relations became worse. Sometimes Pakistan used a flexible way of foreign policy and at some
other point Pakistan used a flat foreign policy towards India and as a result we couldn’t make the
smooth relations with India. So there is a need of change in foreign policy and the way in which
the foreign policy is formulated. We need some modern and updated ways of foreign policy in
this international area of relations instead of the traditional ways to deal with the issues. so
according to my point of view I would like to provide few diplomatic as well as political
recommendations to the state of Pakistan so that it can make a smooth And fruitful foreign policy
towards India in order to deal the major issue of Kashmir between these two states
internationally. The recommendations are mentioned below;
1. First and foremost the state of Pakistan must stop backing the Kashmir based militant in
Indian occupied Kashmir. Because this act of Pakistan authorities Is creating mass
militarization of Kashmir by Indian authorities to counter the revolutionary Kashmir
militants. This step will be just taken to demilitarize the beautiful and the green region of
Kashmir.
2. And other important action is that Pakistan must use its diplomatic relations to get the
most support of its narrative on the Kashmir issue at international arena particularly by
making good relations with European Union and international superpowers like America
China and Russia. In this way the narrative of Pakistan will get more popularity and more
advertisement in the international world and finally we will be able to solve this issue
through an international platform. The forum of United Nations Security Council can
play an important role in solving this issue.
3. Counter the Indian hegemonic role in South Asia, Pakistan must improve her economy
abilities by increasing its exports at regional level. Also by having smooth and good
relations with all the countries of Middle East and East Asian countries there will be a
boost in the economy of Pakistan. Hence a country with big economy will have a greater
influence in this international world so the issue of Kashmir will be easy to resolve.
4. Being an important player of the region Pakistan must normalize its relation with India by
opening border and people to people contact. This step will give a good image of
Pakistan in creating the World peaceful. Moreover through this step we can have a
 greater image about our foreign policy towards India and this will help us stabilizing our
position in UN. The program of kartarpur corridor is a big peaceful initiative taken by
Pakistan to normalize the relations between Pakistan and India. So there is a need of more
such steps to increase the people to people contact between these states.
5. Another round of peaceful talks must be initiated to resolve the issue of Kashmir with
more rational demands this act will start the process of peace talks. This will be purely a
peaceful way to solve the issue of Kashmir.
6. As the Indian authorities revoked the special status of Kashmir by removing theArticle
870 and 35A so in response to this act Pakistan must include the northern areas specially
Gilgit-Baltistan As the fifth complete province of the state of Pakistan. Thisstep should
be just taken as a response to the Indian step and aggression taken in the Kashmir.

Conclusion
The history of India and Pakistan has only conflicts, wars, territorial claims and border
issues. These conflicts started since the independence of both states. Numerous amounts of
times many attempts were made to normalize the relations and continue the peace process
but all these efforts stopped due to the various reasons presented by both states.
The main bone of contention between India and Pakistan is Kashmir issue. During the
president Musharaff’s era there were few events which put the states at the edge of war and
that conventional war may trigger a nuclear War between the States and consequently, entire
South Asia was going to face serious ramifications of this nuclear war for a long period of
time. After the attack on Indian parliament in 2001 the Pakistan started a peace talk with the
India this initiative includes the composite tasks this peace negotiation talks include many
agendas to resolve such as the problem of Siachen Sector, Sir Creek, non-proliferation of
nuclear arms in the region and trust formation steps on one other.
To grow end progress economically as well as politically in the region, the peace process
must be continued otherwise this small unresolved issue will ignite the fire of nuclear tension
between India and Pakistan.

Bibliography
➢ G.E. Daniel, “ Contending Theories of International Relations”, J.B. Lippincott
Company, Philadelphia, New York, 1971.
➢ J. Oimstead, “India-Pakistan Relations: A Destructive Equilibrium,” The Diplomat,
November 2, 2014.
➢ M. Bukhtiar, "Pakistan’s foreign policy towards India in Musharraf Era," Parliament
Times, January 11, 2017
➢ F. Akhtar, "Pakistan’s Foreign Policy towards India during Musharraf Era", MPhil
dissertation, University of the Punjab, Lahore, 2016.
➢ Z. Abbas, "When Pakistan and India went to war over Kashmir in 1999," The Herald,
February 17, 2017.
➢ H.S.Rothstein, Afghanistan and the Troubled Future of Unconventional Warfare (New
Delhi: Manas Publications, 2006).
➢ M.A. Bashir and M Ahmed, "Pak-India Relations during Musharraf Era Behavioral Study
of Leadership" Berkeley Journal of Social Sciences 3 (2013).
➢ Sattar, Pakistan's Foreign Policy (1947-2005) (Oxford University Press, 2007).

➢ F. Ashraf, "Jammu and Kashmir Dispute: Examining various Proposals for Its
Resolution," CSS Forum, June 18, 2015.
➢ M. Bukhtiar, "Pakistan’s foreign policy towards India in Musharraf Era," Parliament
Times, January 11, 2017.
➢ Ali, N. “General Musharraf’s four-point formula can provide an effective roadmap in
Kashmir”. An Interview with Prof Abdul Ghani Bhat.Institute of Peace and Conflict
Studies, 2011.http://www.ipcs.org/pdf_file/issue/SR99-BhatInterview.pdf
➢ Y. P. Rajesh, "At least 66 killed in India-Pakistan train blast," Reuters, February 19,
2007, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-pakistantrainidUSDEL34195220070219