IN May 1990, I was among four academics and editors two each from Pakistan and India who visited the United States under its International Visitors` Programme (IVP). As is the case today, Pakistan and India were involved in a conflict. Every morning, our hosts used to ask us, though jokingly, whether we were on talking terms with each other.

At almost every forum, members of the audience used to put a question or two about Kashmir, thereby indirectly forcing the participants to take official positions.

Once over dinner, Ibha Dixit, one of the delegates from India, suggested that we should surprise our hosts by not touching the Kashmir issue at all.

Dixit was at the time teaching at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi, and her father, J.N. Dixit, was posted as the high commissioner of Indiain Pakistan. He later became India`s foreign secretary.

I and my other colleague from Pakistan agreed to Dixit`s suggestion. The next morning, as per our plan, I spoke about the Pakistan-India relations and the American role in bringing them together.

I did not utter a single word about Kashmir.

The very next speaker was Dixit, who started with Kashmir and ended on it.

Her own colleague was naturally surprised and embarrassed. I, too, was disappointed.

In the question-answer session that followed the speeches, when someone asked why there was a big trust deficit between the two countries, I tore Dixit apart by recalling the previous night`s agreed plan right in front of more than 2,000 university students and faculty members.

The immediate result was highly encouraging. Students, even those from India, were clapping enthusiastically in favour of Pakistan. This incident clearly gives us an idea why we are not able to resolve the Kashmir issue thus far, and why Pakistan is always wary and cautious of Indian betrayals and machinations.

Sy ed Jawaid Iqbal Karachi