New Delhi, Nov 25: On the face of it, Pakistan's order to its troops to cease fire along the Line of Control between Jammu and Kashmir from Id-ul-Fitr should be welcomed. It is the first major announcement by the neighbouring country to help the cause of peace along the LoC. If the doubts persist that this proposal may turn out to be eyewash, it is because of Pakistan's past record. It has been found wanting on several occasions including during the unilateral cease-fire declared by India three years ago. India had at that time asked its security forces to hold back their guns against the terrorists in the State. On the other hand, Pakistan had then constantly encouraged the gun-totting marauders to indulge in pinpricks so that there were no signs of normalcy. Time and again, Pakistan has also violated the sanctity of the LoC itself. Its Kargil excursion is still fresh in memory. It was not the first time then that it had blown the Simla Agreement to pieces. Before and after that, Pakistan has many a time just ignored this bilateral accord and chosen to shed copious tears on various international fora. Therefore, India has every reason to respond cautiously to Pakistan's latest announcement; howsoever well meaning it may appear. On our part, we should resist the temptation of interpreting it as Pakistan's admission that it has, indeed, been indulging in mischief on the LoC. Instead, the country should wait for the actual response on the battlefront. If Pakistan genuinely translates its self-professed pious intentions into a reality, India should be more than willing to accommodate it. In any case, India has always maintained that it would like its neighbour to shun its continuously bitter and confrontationist agenda. It had announced, just before Diwali, as many as 12 confidence-building measures to bolster peace in the sub-continent. Pakistan has been extremely slow in reacting to them. Fortunately, however, it has realised their merit. It has come around to discuss most of these mutually beneficially measures. Only in the case of our State, it has not hidden its evil design even while climbing down a little on the issue of reopening the road between Srinagar, our summer capital, and Muzaffarabad, capital of 'Azad' Kashmir, as the Pakistan-occupied territory is locally known. In his televised address, Pakistan Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali has indicated a shift in his country's earlier stance. He has expressed readiness to discuss this matter as well, though on the assumption that J&K remains ''a disputed territory' in accordance with the United Nations resolutions and the LoC is a temporary line. So far Pakistan had been insisting that the United Nations should control and supervise the route. Pakistan's latest formulation is no less intriguing. In no way does it seem to facilitate the restoration of age-old ties between the people on either side of the LoC. Nevertheless, it is a good signal that Pakistan has no such reservations about the resumption of the Mumbai-Karachi ferry service and Munabo (Rajasthan)-Kokhrapar (Sindh) road link, which, it says, it is prepared to discuss. Quite satisfactorily, it has accepted suggestions for opening more visa camps and allowing the senior citizens to cross the Wagah border on foot. Has Pakistan's thinking undergone a change in the context of the dramatically altered post 9/11 global scenario? Of late, it has launched an offensive against Al-Qaeda activists in its tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. Moreover, it has banned few terror outfits that had started operating under the new banners. Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf himself has warned religious extremists against besmirching the image of their country. He has told them clearly that his efforts to persuade the other countries to withdraw their travel advisories against Pakistan come to naught because of their misdeeds. If Pakistan acts with wisdom and maturity, it will certainly be in the interest of peace in the sub-continent. We should take note of Pakistan's shift from a pugnacious approach in the past to a reconciliatory mood now. Its Prime Minister Jamali has asserted: `We can change the atmosphere of confrontation with a strong political determination'. In a way, it amounts to merely echoing what the Indian leaders have been often saying in the past. However, coming from the Pakistan leadership, it shows that at some level it has begun to see the writing on the wall that the perpetrators of terrorism have no future. On its part, India should feel satisfied that its initiative in ushering in peace has begun to evoke a positive response. At the same time, it has to stand guard. By all means, we must celebrate Id in the grand manner in which we do every year. On such a holy occasion, we have to regret that we have been left stranded by a cunning neighbour so far as our plans to have a joint feast on either side of the LoC are concerned.