The recent attack on the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) convoy on 14 February this year by Pakistan-based terrorist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed that led to over 40 personnel being martyred, has brought into focus a 2016 report submitted in the Pakistan senate.

The Pakistan senate is like the Indian Rajya Sabha, and it had set up a ‘Committee Of The Whole’ to prepare policy guidelines in the light of emerging regional realities. A ‘Whole Committee’ is based on the US practice of making all representatives serve on the panel.

Around the time when the Narendra Modi government began to retaliate against Islamabad’s action of encouraging terrorist attacks from its territory, the Pakistan senate asked the ‘Committee of Whole’ to come up with “policy guidelines in view of the latest situation developing between India and Pakistan”.

A motion was moved in the Pakistan senate on 26 September 2016 based on which 13 members were nominated on the committee. A month later, it came out with a four-page report or the ‘First Report’.

In its initial remarks, the committee indulged in the usual anti-India bashing, condemning Indian action in Kashmir, seeking plebiscite in the territory, demanding setting up of a fact-finding team, reaffirming the Shimla Agreement and taking note of “attempts by India to disturb Indus Water Treaty and use of water as weapon by Modi Government”.

The concerns raised in the senate report seem to be the way the Modi government has handled Pakistan. ‘Modi’ figures six times in the four-page report.

The more glaring aspect of the report is the senators’ admission that for the first time since 1971, Pakistan was facing intense pressure from India. The report said: