‘They (ISI chief and his Indian counterpart) should meet... when I say they (Pak) will be willing, I must have a good reason’:
Former Pakistan NSA Maj Gen (retd) Mahmud Ali Durrani
Sep 14, 2009
Q. My guest this week is former national security adviser of Pakistan, a former general, a Track Two peacemaker and, most of all, an honourable professional soldier. Major General Mahmud Ali Durrani, welcome to Walk the Talk.
Thank you very much.
Q. You fought in the 1965 war.
Proudly and in one of the toughest battlefields, Chawinda.
Q. Chawinda in Sialkot sector. What we call Sialkot sector, you say Sialkot Samba sector.
Exactly. It was the biggest armour battle after World War II.
Q. Rival claims apart, was it that battle or that war which first convinced you that the two countries have to find peace.
No. I was a young officer, at the threshold of my profession. As I grew in life and in the profession, I reflected upon the 1965 war and saw the futility of it — very honourable people on both sides getting killed. What did we achieve? I got more experienced when I travelled with Zia-ul-Haq as his military secretary. I saw the rest of the world. It is all this combined experience that brought me to the conclusion not only regarding the futility of war but also the fact that I needed to do something about it.
Q. Musharraf was in the same war.
He was junior to me.
Q. When did you decide that you have to now start working actively for it?
I think this was in 1994-95. I was coming close to my retirement age and I made this commitment because I was very clear about the futility of the acrimony between the two countries. For the good of Pakistan and for the good of our future generations, I decided that the rest of my life I was going to devote myself to the peace process between India and Pakistan.
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