Pakistan Offers Peace

Out of a raimvashed blue sky, a Viking flying the green and white crescent flag of Pakistan touched down last week at New Delhi's Palam airport. An Indian military band struck up Wi' a Hundred Pipers, a 21-gun salute boomed out, and Pakistan's gaunt, partially paralyzed Governor General Ghulam Mohammed limped across the tarmac toward Jawaharlal Nehru. "I am a simple man of faith and good will," Ghulam replied to the sharp questions of Nehru's attendant reporters. "I have more faith in Jawaharlalji than you have. With toleration and understanding there will be no difficulty whatsoever." When a reporter expressed skepticism. Ghulam rasped: "If you don't believe in peace, you can go to hell. ndia and Pakistan have both made mistakes. We both should be ashamed."

Unraveling the Tangle. Since India and Pakistan were both carved out of the old British India in August 1947--a bloody episode in which more than 500,000 people were killed in Hindu-Moslem fighting-the two nations have fought and brooded over divided Kashmir, over water rights and 99 other listed grievances, and now spend about half of their budgets on defense, primarily against each other. When Ghulam Mohammed and his strong right-hand man, Major General Mirza, imposed "controlled democracy" upon Pakistan last fall, Pakistan began to move toward peace. "I must tell you 1 sincerely feel that you and I must unravel the tangles between our two countries." Ghulam wrote Nehru, who subsequently invited Ghulam toNew Delhi.

Nehru, proud of his own Kashmiri ancestry, did not intend to offer any big concessions on disputed Kashmir; India holds the Vale of Kashmir and that is that. Nehru might be willing, however, to legalize the present U.N. cease-fire line as the India-Pakistan frontier, which would give Pakistan a lot of north and west Kashmir. Pakistan was ready to look more amicably upon Nehru's pan-Asian neutralism, but most of all Pakistan simply wanted peace. "Ghulam is a very sick man who wants to see Pakistan's future assured," said one Indian official. "America is friendly but far away. India is close but presently unfriendly. Ghulam wants a friendly Nehru."

Crossing the Scree. "The dark period of strain has lasted too long," said Ghulam at a New Delhi state banquet. "The time has come to end it completely...otherwise our people will laugh at our insincerity and lack of leadership." Nehru sat Ghulam in a place of honor at India's Republic Day parade, and together they watched jets swoop, elephants trundle and the New Delhi fire brigade roll by. "The new approach," said one Indian official, "will be to try and clear up all the minor issues first. This way we hope to get successfully over the scree and gain confidence for the big climb--Kashmir."

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