Musharraf cautious about outcome of summit

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, JUNE 25. A day before he begins the process of formal consultations with a cross-section of society on his Delhi yatra, the Pakistani President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, has once again reiterated that he is ``cautiously optimistic'' about his summit meeting with the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Gen. Musharraf also declared that his Government would not compromise on Pakistan's minimum nuclear deterrence. The President's two statements at a college on the outskirts of Islamabad are perhaps intended to set the agenda for the consultations, and send out a clear signal to those on the domestic front apprehensive of the visit, that they have nothing to worry about.

The ``policy statements'' came amid indications that the departure of the two-member team to New Delhi to finalise the programme and oversee the security arrangements for Gen. Musharraf was delayed.

``Probably the team may not be able to leave Islamabad on June 27 as announced earlier. The reason for the delay is partly to do with the fact that New Delhi is still busy with the nitty-gritty of the details of the summit and gen. Musharraf's other engagements during his stay in India,'' a Foreign Office official said.

In an informal briefing to the press on Sunday, the chief spokesman of the military government, Maj. Gen. Rashid Quereshi, indicated that the agenda for the Agra meeting would not be ``rigid''. While Kashmir was the ``core issue'', Pakistan would have no problem in discussing other subjects, he said. In a way, it is an endorsement of the Indian line for a ``composite dialogue'' and the eight-point agenda evolved in 1997.

Gen. Musharraf is slated to have a heart-to-heart meeting with a group of editors of leading Pakistani papers. He has also invited 24 leaders of religious and political parties for a discussion. The Alliance for Restoration of Democracy, a conglomerate of 18 parties including the Pakistan Muslim League and the Pakistan People's Party, is meeting in Lahore tomorrow to decide whether or not to respond to the invitation of Gen. Musharraf after he took over as the President.

The meeting with the representatives of parties and groups from the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir will be the last - on June 28. There are different views among the parties and groups in PoK on the Agra summit.

In his speech at the college function, Gen. Musharraf said: ``The minimum nuclear deterrence will not and cannot be compromised as the security of Pakistan rests on this capability.'' ``Pakistan's nuclear capability is entirely for self-defence. We have no aggressive designs. We believe in acquiring minimum credible deterrence and do not want to direct our limited resources towards the race of weapons of mass destruction.''

Gen. Musharraf said ``South Asia must come out of its pit of poverty and learn to live in peace and harmony. It is in this spirit that I have accepted the invitation of Indian Prime Minister''.

About his Indian visit from July 14 to 16, he said: ``I am going there with cautious optimism.'' Pakistan, he said, did realise that the Islamic world and it (Pakistan) were left behind in science and technology and a lot of catching had to be done. ``This was possible if we focus on this area,'' he said.

``If we remain ever-dependent on borrowed knowledge and imported technology, the Muslim world cannot develop.'' He said without developing a sound indigenous base for science and technology ``we can neither prosper nor live in peace and security.''

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