The Hindu : Pressure on Musharraf to review `old Kashmir policy'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 23, 2002

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International

Pressure on Musharraf to review `old Kashmir policy'

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD JUNE 22. Escalation of tensions between India and Pakistan following the May 14 terrorist attack on an Army camp near Jammu has clearly put the Musharraf Government on the defensive and the regime is confronted with a serious dilemma in working out a strategy for an honourable way out of the impasse.

The military regime is caught between pressures from the international community led by the United States to put a "permanent end" to cross-border infiltration and the religious parties in the country that threaten to take to streets on what they call a "sell out" on Kashmir.

However, perhaps for the first time in recent years, a section of the civil society and some of the ardent supporters of Islamabad on its Kashmir policy have begun to question its validity in the changed world realities. The impact of international and Indian pressure particularly in the last four weeks has been such that there has been spate of commentaries in the Pakistani press asking the Government to reconsider its old policy vis-a-vis Kashmir.

A section of the press has been unsparing on the religious lobby that has launched a campaign accusing the Musharraf regime of giving into the U.S. pressure on Kashmir "struggle". Some of the writers have been candid in counselling the right wing parties to learn a lesson or two from the Afghan experience.

A conference on Kashmir organised by the six-party religious grouping, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, in Lahore on Sunday has failed to galvanise the public opinion against the supposed retreat of the Musharraf Government from its known stand on the Kashmir issue. The grouping led by the Jamaat-e-Islami, the largest religious party in Pakistan, had warned the military government not to "betray" the Kashmir cause and said the "nation" would turn against it.

It is not just the "liberal elements" which campaigned in vain before September 11 urging Islamabad to review its ties with the Taliban, that have been asking the Musharraf regime and the religious parties to see the writing on the wall and redefine its Kashmir policy. The case of Nasim Zehra, well-known commentator and member of the National Kashmir Committee, best illustrates the point. In a write-up in The News, she was candid in stating that vis-a-vis Kashmir issue Pakistan "can only be blamed for substituting diplomatic dialogue with gunpowder tactics".

``The gunpowder tactics climaxed in the mid-90s. Inspired by the outcome of the joint U.S.-Pakistan agencies victory against the Soviets in Afghanistan, it has been India's general refusal to come to the dialogue table that provided justification to the Pakistani establishment and to a section of the Kashmiris on both sides of the LoC to opt for gunpowder tactics'', she wrote.

The religious parties and groups in the country, which vociferously backed the Kashmir policy of successive regimes, however do not appear to be ready for change in strategy contemplated by the military government. This is evident from a series of statements by several leaders of religious parties and militant groups like the Hizb-ul Mujahideen.

On Thursday, the Jamat-e-Islami chief, Qazi Hussain Ahmad, chose the forum of students wing of his organisation to air his views on the subject. He told them that Gen. Musharraf's assurance to India and the U.S. that nobody would be allowed to "travel" across the Control Line in Kashmir was unjust and oppressive. He asserted that nobody would be allowed to suppress or ban the Kashmiri "freedom struggle".

``The Pakistan Army should clearly tell the Government that neither would it backtrack from nation's stand on Kashmir nor participate in any `discourage-Kashmiris' exercise along with Indian Army,'' he told them.

He compared it to the U.S. tactics in West Asia and maintained that the U.S. was putting same demand as it had done in the case of Yasser Arafat. Qazi Hussain Ahmed alleged that Gen. Musharraf was being asked to join the bandwagon to kill Kashmiris. Later, the U.S. would ask him to close down Pakistan's nuclear programme, he said.

All religious and political parties would have to block the path of the Government and the U.S., he said adding "otherwise, the situation will head towards complete defeat''. He claimed that a deal on Kashmir was in the making and the present regime was giving up Pakistan's "principled stand on Kashmir due to its cowardice, weakness and wrong policies".

While there is growing consensus on the need to review the "old Kashmir policy', there is a strong view that India should not be allowed to edge out Pakistan as a party to the Kashmir issue.

As Ms. Zehra wrote in her column "what is then the scorecard for India and Pakistan? Absence of a military attack Vajpayee correctly states is India's victory. Getting a commitment from Pakistan on the LoC is an Indian achievement. But what next? How long will this victory last?... Will all the blocked avenues for dialogue convince Islamabad to refrain from gunpowder tactics? Did people's resistance and the bullet emerge in J&K because of Indian state terrorism or because of Kashmir?''

``These are questions that Delhi must answer as it relishes its diplomatic gains. Meanwhile, Islamabad must re-examine the best options for supporting the Kashmiri struggle for self-determination in the given context''.

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