Declarations difficult for Generals: Benazir

LONDON, JULY 19. The former Pakistan Prime Minister, Ms. Benazir Bhutto, today put the blame squarely on the Pakistan President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, for his failure to sign a joint declaration with India during the Agra summit.

``It was startling to witness his puerile brinkmanship where the Indians called the bluff,'' the Pakistan People's Party chief said adding the ``summit did prove that whilst politicians come up with agreements, declarations are difficult for Generals''.

Commenting on the summit, the self-exiled leader, facing corruption charges in Pakistan, said in a statement here that ``time was always running short - and then extended. Gen. Musharraf departed when sources leaked that the talks would continue the next day''.

She said the entire world was watching the ``Agra summit'' and expected a joint declaration but eventually ``there was not even a joint statement''.

``Blaming Pakistani politicians for succumbing to army pressure, some in India believed they could do business with the army instead. They found a self-confessing powerless army chief who said he would have to live in India in his old Neharwali house if he signed a declaration. The civilian leaders signed Simla, Islamabad and Lahore (agreements)- all honourable agreements,'' she said.

Stating that diplomacy is the art of the possible, she said, ``political leaders are trained in the art of give-and- take. General Musharraf is a military dictator. When he speaks, others jump to attention. If they don't, they are locked away''.

Ms. Bhutto said Gen. Musharraf made key ``errors'' in the trip. ``He failed to build an internal consensus of legitimate political forces.

He relied on an inefficient team which failed him previously. With good advice, he could have stayed an extra day. Exhausting the other side is a pretty elementary diplomatic trick. Instead, he left in a huff,'' she noted.

Islamabad was keen for a declaration and New Delhi knew it. This was confirmed by a Pakistani delegate who told the Gulf news, ``I went up to the Indian Foreign Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh, and told him he could write what he wanted and we would accept it,'' she said.

Stating that it is extraordinary, Ms. Bhutto said, ``it is little wonder that Mr. Jaswant Singh wanted another day of talks to put in his wish list when the Islamabad side offered such accommodation''.

``If there is a legacy to this summit, it is that New Delhi managed to match Pakistan's commitment to the Kashmir dispute with an equally vocal and high profile repetition of cross border terrorism,'' Ms. Bhutto said. She recalled that since 1993, when the diplomat, Mr. J.N. Dixit, offered to Pakistan, Kashmir as a separate agenda item at the Commonwealth Conference at Cyprus, the Indian side is willing to include Kashmir as the bone of contention. ``But the interpretation of that contention is different to Pakistan's,'' she said.

Ms. Bhutto said ``narrowing the focus to the words on a draft statement, usually successfully manoeuvred by diplomats, is ignoring the larger picture. That picture involves tense relations between two nuclear capable States that fought three wars and have daggers drawn at the Line of Control in the Kashmir Valley''.

Ms. Bhutto said that a nervous world community pushed both leaders towards the negotiating table to lessen tensions that may prove fatal for ``South Asia, housing one-fifth of humanity''. But Gen. Musharraf, she said, was hampered by his dependence on a military constituency wedded to militancy. ``He lacked a popular mandate and desired his nation's highest constitutional posts. Given his agenda, ambitions, army, America and Afghanistan, Gen. Musharraf played his cards well, except for the late night departure.''

``Buying international time and goodwill in the run-up to the summit, he seized the presidency, assumed Draconian powers under the National Security Council, got another tranche of the IMF loan and persecuted opponents,'' she said.

``In extending an invitation to the Indian Prime Minister, Mr. A.B. Vajpayee, he held out the promise of another summit. More time to choreograph a domestic political scenario by October 2002,'' she noted.

- PTI

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