Indian Aid to Pakistan: A Glimpse at India-Pakistan Relations

The Hindu, the second largest Indian newspaper in English after The Times of India, reported yesterday in a dispatch from Islamabad that the Pakistan government had yet to decide on modalities for India’s offer to provide $5 million to help victims of the country’s worst flood, though Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had last week announced the acceptance of the aid.

The Indian government has not yet been formally asked to start supplying the aid and the Foreign Office spokesman said the matter is still being discussed.

“We are working on it and the decision will soon be made public,” spokesman Abdul Basit said.

This has to be seen in the perspective of Pakistan’s reluctance to accept aid from India in the first place. Pakistan would not have agreed if the American government had not urged it to do so.

This is a quote from The Times of India:

“Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani [of Pakistan] has said that the move to accept the assistance has enhanced Pakistan’s diplomatic image and asked those opposed to taking aid from India to give reasons for their stand.

“I would like to ask the critics of Indian aid on what ground we should refuse it. It will be a narrow approach if we refuse aid from India,” Gilani told reporters at his residence here.

“But the move has been criticized by some politicians. ‘The government has accepted the Indian aid offer on the US call,’ said Senator Raja Zafar-ul-Haq, chairman of PML party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

“Former Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar was quoted as saying that ‘it is beyond understanding that the government accepted the offer after few days.’

“However, Gilani said: ‘Would it not be a contrast if we refused the aid? On the one hand, we are stressing the resumption of dialogue with India and on the other we refuse its aid. We should come out of this approach and give a strong image of Pakistan.’ He said he was chairing a high-level meeting when he was informed about India’s offer to provide aid. ‘I told my Foreign Minister to thank his Indian counterpart for the aid,’ he said.”