In an interview that is likely to create political tremors in Islamabad and both discomfort and delight in New Delhi, Pakistan’s former High Commissioner to India, Abdul Basit, has sharply and personally criticised former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.He has accused him of “pandering to India unilaterally and unconditionally”. Abdul Basit has also said two of Sharif’s closest foreign affairs advisors, Sartaj Aziz and Tariq Fatemi, had “apologetic mind-sets” and were more keen to accept “Modi’s contentions and work quickly to assuage Modi’s concerns” rather than stand up for Pakistan’s interests.He says former Foreign Secretary Aizaz was “brazenly apologetic and improvident” and at the time of the 2015 joint statement “wanted to deliver (to India) no matter what”.Abdul Basit has also said that Sajjan Jindal played a critical role carrying secret messages between Modi and Sharif, on matters ranging from meetings with Hurriyat to the Kulbhushan Jadhav case. Finally, Basit says “right from the word go Pakistan has mishandled the Kulbhushan Jadhav case” and adds it’s “gradually losing its credibility in the matter”.Basit also gives details of how he was repeatedly and deliberately excluded from India-Pakistan meetings or communications, specifically at the behest of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. He gives details of how the then Foreign Secretary (Aizaz) humiliated him by telling junior officers not to communicate with him without the Foreign Secretary’s permission. Basit also reveals how over the Kulbhushan Jadhav matter he received a letter of reprimand, again from a junior officer, which effectively minimised him and tied his hands.In a 45-minute interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, given to launch his recently written account of his three and half years in India as High Commissioner called Hostility, Basit discussed some of his sensational and shocking revelations. The book will be published sometime in April but its full contents were made available by email to Karan Thapar.Asked by The Wire on what grounds he claims Sharif pandered to India unilaterally and unconditionally, Basit said: “I watched our leader very very closely. I make this assertion on the basis of what I have seen when Nawaz Sharif came for Modi’s inauguration. It was uncalled for to unilaterally free Indian fishermen as a gesture of goodwill. At the meeting in Delhi Nawaz Sharif kept silent on Kashmir. He did not mention Kashmir even a single time. He also did not seek a meeting with Hurriyat. I had suggested he should”.Speaking about Sharif’s attitude and policy to India, Basit said the former PM thought that by making unilateral concessions to Modi he would get concessions in return but that did not happen. As a result Pakistan’s principal position on Jammu and Kashmir, in particular, was poorly defended and even compromised by Sharif.Nawaz Sharif and Narendra Modi in Lahore. Photo: PMOBasit said Nawaz Sharif wanted to maintain good relations with Modi but did so unilaterally without anything in return. He said both the joint statement of December 2015 and the Ufa joint statement were poorly negotiated by Pakistan. They made concessions to India without any gain for Pakistan. At the time he expressed his disagreement with both joint statements.Basit also said “Sharif had an emotional attachment to India and Indians which, at times…went beyond his stature as the Prime Minister”. Asked if he was saying Sharif had conflicted emotions, Basit elaborated: “Sharif would reach out to Indians without remembering he was Prime Minister and this was not proper”.Basit said Sharif would meet almost any Indian who wanted to see him and added Sharif was “out to oblige everyone”. He said Sharif “did not live up to the high standards of the office of Prime Minister of Pakistan”.In the interview to The Wire Basit also spoke about Sartaj Aziz and Tariq Fatemi. He said: “One thing that particularly struck me was their accepting Modi’s contentions readily and working quickly to assuage his concerns”. Of former Foreign Secretary Aizaz he said when negotiating the December 2015 joint statement “he wanted to deliver (to India) no matter what”. He said these people were “not up to the task” and his impression is they were poor at standing up for Pakistan’s interests.Also read: PM Modi’s Hug for Nawaz Sharif in 2015 Cost India Rs 2.86 Lakh, RTI RevealsBasit spoke in detail about his relationship with the Sharif government and his senior colleagues in the Foreign Office in Islamabad. “I was considered to be an outsider…my own ministry would prefer to conduct relations with India through its High Commissioner in Islamabad and would not keep me posted”.In 2015, when Sharif wanted to reply to a letter received from Modi, it was given to the Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad to deliver and not to Basit, thus denying him a chance to meet Modi. Weeks later when the two Prime Ministers met in Paris in November 2015 Sharif told Foreign Secretary Aizaz not to inform Basit. He was deliberately kept out of the loop. Again, on Christmas Day 2015, when Modi visited Lahore, Basit was in Pakistan but was not asked to be part of that meeting. Once again, he was deliberately kept out.Basit said not only was he frequently excluded and out of the loop, he was also frequently insulted. A junior official in Islamabad told him “the Foreign Secretary has instructed them not to send any communication to the High Commissioner in Delhi without his permission”. He said this was humiliating.On other occasions Basit said he was minimised and his hands were tied. When he spoke to the Foreign Correspondents Club in Delhi on the Kulbhushan Jadhav matter, dampening speculation about a reciprocal handling of this problem, he received a letter of reprimand from a junior official in Islamabad telling him “to seek prior clearance from the Foreign Ministry before making policy statements”.Also read: As Pakistan Remains Unmoved, Here’s What India Can do for Kulbhushan Jadhav’s FreedomHowever, Basit repeatedly denied to The Wire that all of this has been revealed by him to hit back at Nawaz Sharif who had, earlier, told Basit he would be made Foreign Secretary but never gave him the job nor any explanation for changing his mind. Basit accepted there was hurt but insisted his revelations are not revenge. He said he is simply telling the truth and putting it on record.Basit was also asked why, despite the cumulative humiliation and insults and the deliberate exclusion by the Prime Minister and the Foreign Office, he did not resign. He said he had informally asked for a transfer, which was not given, but then agreed that he chose to stay on in India because he felt someone had to stand up to Narendra Modi. Since no one else in his government was willing to do so he felt this was his duty.He said: “I…was not willing to pander to Modi at the cost of Kashmir”. He added that he repeatedly told his government: “We should dispense with our delusional unilateral approach in the hope that Modi is some sort of saint who will reciprocate and accommodate our concerns”.However, despite his explanation for not resigning, Basit emerges from his book Hostility as a sucker for punishment who happily swallowed his pride and honour on multiple occasions. He did not demur when this was put to him in the interview.Sajjan Jindal. Photo: Twitter/FileFinally, Basit reveals details of the numerous occasions when Indian industrialist Sajjan Jindal played a critical role carrying secret messages between Modi and Sharif. Jindal facilitated Sharif’s congratulatory phone call when Modi first got elected in 2014, ensured Sharif did not meet the Hurriyat when he came to India for Modi’s swearing-in, arranged their conversation in Paris in 2015 and carried messages between them over the Kulbhushan Jadhav matter.Basit reveals that Jindal knew before he did that Sharif had agreed to attend Modi’s swearing-in. Jindal also had Sharif’s detailed itinerary for that visit, which was clearly drawn up without consulting Basit. In fact, Basit said there were many occasions when Jindal knew what Sharif was doing before the Pakistan High Commissioner did.Finally, Basit says of the Kulbhushan Jadhav matter: “Right from the word go Pakistan mishandled the case and is gradually losing its credibility in the matter”.He added that as a result Pakistan has boxed itself into a corner. “It can neither free Jadhav nor, it seems, hang him…perhaps the only option left for Pakistan is to complicate the matter legally and drag it on indefinitely so that it’s saved from taking the tough decision of either hanging or freeing Jadhav”.Watch the full interview here.
