The government did well to hand over to the Indian authorities the captured Indian pilot last friday. By and large, this decision was appreciated by almost all shades of public opinion though there was some muted criticism too against it in some political quarters which thought that the government had acted in post-haste. There was no point in retaining him in our custody. By doing so the PM had, on his part, sent a signal to his Indian counterpart that Pakistan stood for peace and reconciliation and for the solution of all outstanding issues that have been cause of friction between New Delhi and Islamabad in a spirit of cordiality .
The detractors of the present government aver that Pakistan had , so many times in the past, extended its hand of friendship to India but its efforts to hit it off with New Delhi always foundered on the rock of India’s obduracy and this time round also its fate won’t be much different. The answer to this is :What is the harm if one more time peace is given a chance ?Diplomatically, we lose nothing even if Modi spurns peace offer of our PM.
It goes without saying that the Indian military adventure has boomeranged and the Indian political and military leadership is now licking its wounds. The abortive air action in which the IAF lost one of its plane which was downed by the PAF in a dog fight had once again proved the superiority of our airforce in training and skill as compared to the much bigger Indian airforce which is equipped with latest air technology . It once again proved the age old dictum that it is not the gun but the man behind the gun who matters.