Pak. may seek deal with U.S. on Kashmir

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, SEPT. 16. The U.S. President, Mr. George W. Bush, is said to have called his Pakistani counterpart, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, late on Saturday from Camp David and the latter has pledged ``full cooperation'' during the course of the conversation.

The conversation is said to have lasted between 10 and 15 minutes. For his part, Mr. Bush is said to have thanked Gen. Musharraf and the people of Pakistan for the help extended in the fight against terrorism.

But CNN quoting sources from Islamabad is maintaining that Gen. Musharraf told Mr. Bush that the United States must get more involved on the Kashmir issue, a first sign that Islamabad is extracting a heavy price for its cooperation vis-a-vis Afghanistan and Osama bin Laden.

The Bush administration has been quite blunt with Pakistan in recent days. While officials here are not willing to talk about the details of the conversations, it is believed that senior administration officials had told Pakistani diplomats here that there were no ``grey areas'' on the subject of terrorism and if Islamabad was not getting on board, it could be branded as a nation supporting terrorism. In this event further sanctions and restrictions would be applied, it was told.

Administration officials, led by the Secretary of State, Gen. Colin Powell, have maintained a studied silence on what is expected of Pakistan. But it was obvious from the beginning that it would be much beyond ``permission'' for over- flights. Aside from opening up the airspace for missile and air attacks, Pakistan was told to put the squeeze on the Taliban in a variety of ways, including sharing of certain intelligence information, sealing the border and cutting off fuel supplies.

The Bush administration is also leaning on Pakistan for the stationing of a multinational force which would include nations from the Islamic world. This force is not expected to be as large as the one assembled during the Gulf war a decade ago; and Pakistan has said that it would not participate in any direct military operation against Afghanistan.

There is the realisation here that Mr. Musharraf is in a very difficult situation in having to choose sides. Yet it was also an opportunity for Pakistan to get back on the right side of Washington, since the strain in relations during the last years of the Clinton administration, caused partly by the escalating violence in Kashmir.

Even if in the short term Pakistan has not put a ``price'' for its cooperation, there is no doubt that in the long term it will and is expected to. Getting the United States ``involved'' formally between India and Pakistan over Kashmir may be a non- starter given New Delhi's position. But if Islamabad is able to get the Bush administration to see Kashmir in a ``non- terrorism'' angle, that itself would be an achievement of sorts.

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Section  : International
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