NEW DELHI: Senior Indian and Pakistani politicians, diplomats, security officials, and Kashmiri leaders have called on New Delhi and Islamabad to pick up the threads of past efforts to resolve the Kashmir issue through comprehensive dialogue.
At a webinar on “Jammu and Kashmir: A Way Forward,” organised by the Centre for Peace and Progress led by O P Shah, the participants argued that despite worsening relations and the collapse of official engagement since 2019, the broad contours of a possible settlement already exist in the form of the India-Pakistan backchannel understanding.
This backchannel understanding was reached during the years of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Manmohan Singh, and former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.
The discussion repeatedly returned to a central theme: neither military confrontation nor unilateral measures has brought lasting peace to Kashmir, while the absence of dialogue has left both countries trapped in a cycle of hostility.
Speakers urged political leaders to revive communication channels, restart people-to-people contacts, encourage intra-Kashmir engagement, and rebuild the confidence lost over the past decade.
Former Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri said the changing nature of warfare should compel both countries to rethink their approach. Referring to recent conflicts around the world and the brief India-Pakistan confrontation, he warned that future wars would spare neither cities nor economic infrastructure.
Advocating for a return to the ‘Kashmir framework’, the four-point formula, Kasuri argued that this ‘win-win formula’ remains the only sane way out, as it seeks to secure the "red lines" of both nations while prioritizing the human rights of Kashmiris. He warned that modern warfare has evolved such that "no state in Bombay or Karachi or Delhi or Lahore will be safe" in a conventional conflict, making peace an existential imperative.
“We must think only in positive terms. How can we prevent a future war between the two countries?” he asked, arguing that Kashmir remained the central issue behind repeated India-Pakistan conflicts. He urged both sides not to “reinvent the wheel” but to revisit the Kashmir framework negotiated by Indian diplomat Satinder Lambah and Pakistani envoy Tariq Aziz.
Kasuri said the framework accommodated the core concerns of India and Pakistan while safeguarding the rights and aspirations of Kashmiris.
He also called for the revival of SAARC, saying regional cooperation had once created a positive atmosphere across South Asia.
Aiyar Backs Position
Former Indian minister Mani Shankar Aiyar strongly backed that position, saying the two sides had come remarkably close to an understanding by 2007.
“In the present, we need to go no further than 2007,” Aiyar said, arguing that most substantive issues had already been addressed before political developments in Pakistan interrupted the process. He maintained that any future solution must involve Kashmiris themselves and warned that the emotional distance between Kashmir and New Delhi had widened since the constitutional changes of August 2019.
Former Pakistani information minister Javed Jabbar proposed a broad-based peace process beginning from the ground up rather than waiting for breakthroughs between governments. He called for sustained engagement among legislators, civil society groups, journalists, and elected representatives from both sides of the Line of Control. He also criticised the absence of dialogue between media institutions in India and Pakistan, saying media narratives often deepen hostility rather than encourage understanding.
Conflict-resolution scholar and former Kashmir Interlocutor Radha Kumar echoed the call to build on earlier achievements rather than start every few years afresh.
Endorsing Kasuri’s position of not wasting time and effort to reinvent the wheel again, she stressed the value of India-Pakistan-Kashmir dialogue processes and urged participants to explore openings for renewed civil society engagement despite strained official relations.
Several speakers, however, argued that repairing India-Pakistan relations should precede any serious discussion on Kashmir.
Pakistani businessman and former parliamentarian Isphanyar Bhandara said bilateral relations had reached such a low point that restoring visas, trade, cultural exchanges, and sporting contacts should be the immediate priority.
“We need to work on India-Pakistan relations, which are at their lowest ebb, and prioritise business, visas, and trade,” he said.
Activist Arvind Sharana said both India and Pakistan currently lacked the political space needed for a grand settlement. Instead, he advocated practical steps such as restoring statehood in Jammu and Kashmir, addressing grievances in Gilgit-Baltistan, strengthening democratic institutions and preserving peace along the Line of Control.
Former Pakistani diplomat Ashraf Jehangir Qazi warned that continued refusal to engage could prove dangerous. He noted that India viewed terrorism as the core issue while Pakistan viewed Kashmir as the central dispute but argued that neither challenge could be addressed without sustained negotiations. He also highlighted water disputes as a potentially serious future flashpoint if the communication channel remained closed.
Visible and Invisible Reality
Former RAW chief AS Dulat, speaking after a recent visit to Kashmir, said the Valley appeared calm on the surface, but underlying political discontent remained. He described Kashmir as having both a “visible” and an “invisible” reality and insisted that there was no way forward without India and Pakistan talking to each other. He also stressed the need to restore statehood and strengthen the authority of the elected government in Jammu and Kashmir.
He further observed that while tourism appears normal, there is an "invisible Kashmir" where the youth feel a deep sense of hopelessness and alienation. He emphasized that terrorism will not end unless India engages in dialogue with Pakistan and that it must go hand in hand.
Kashmiri leader Muzaffar Shah argued that Kashmir could neither be separated from India-Pakistan relations nor indefinitely postponed. Calling for renewed intra-Kashmir dialogue across the Line of Control, he said Kashmiris on both sides had paid the price of conflict for decades and deserved a greater voice in shaping the future.
“There is no other way out,” he said, urging both governments to restart meaningful engagement. He stressed that the restoration of statehood is vital for effective governance, noting that the current Union Territory status leaves the region in a state of ferment, where two directors, a Lieutenant Governor and a Chief Minister, are running two different shows, leaving the state in a lurch.
Participants concluded that the search for peace should resume from where it was interrupted nearly two decades ago. Participants differed on sequencing and tactics, yet most agreed that dialogue, not confrontation, offered the only realistic path forward for Kashmir and for South Asia as a whole.
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