Since October 27, 1947, Occupied Kashmir has been the primary issue between Pakistan and India. Pakistan has a consistent stance that the dispute should be resolved according to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions. While maintaining its principled stance, Islamabad has tried various approaches to convince New Delhi of a peaceful resolution to the dispute.

Pakistan has tried to adopt almost all globally recognized conflict resolution approaches. Pakistan tried several diplomatic means such as a bilateral approach through the Simla agreement. Similarly, Pakistan tried to use a third country as a mediator but in vain. During the Ziaul Haq and Rajiv Gandhi’s tenures, Islamabad tried to adopt the ‘bottom-up approach’ where the less complex political issues such as Siachen, Sir Creek, issues related to visa regimes and improvement of people-to-people connectivity were discussed, hoping that a conducive environment for dialogue might compel India to resolve the Kashmir dispute.

From I K Gujral to Manmohan Singh during the 1990s and 2000s, Pakistan’s top civil and military leadership tried to use Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) and composite dialogue as a strategy to change India’s clogged mindset on Kashmir. During the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rule in India, layers of further complexities were added to the dispute. As a result, hostilities between the two nations have exacerbated since 2019.

There has been an ongoing........

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