Author: Reuters
Publication: The Hindustan Times
Date: April 1, 2004
URL: http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_652902,001300270001.htm
Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf
threatened to withdraw from the peace process if there was no progress
on Kashmir by July or August.
"We have to move forward on Kashmir.
We have to resolve it," he said on a state TV current affairs programme,
aired here on Wednesday. "If we don't move forward, I am not in the process."
Musharraf's time-limit refers to
when the Foreign Ministers of both countries are to meet to review the
talks that were decided on the sidelines of the Saarc summit in January.
His comments were interpreted in
Pakistan as an attempt to force the Kashmir issue squarely onto the agenda
as the two countries embark on the talks. He was also seen as assuring
domestic critics he was not selling out on the emotive issue.
"There is a school of thought that
India would negotiate purposefully on trade and other issues, but just
go through the motions on Kashmir," said former foreign secretary Tanvir
Ahmed Khan.
"What he probably meant was he'd
like to see some concrete results, that the issue of Kashmir gets firmly
embedded in the forthcoming India-Pakistan dialogue," he said.
Officials from both sides held their
first peace talks in nearly three years in February and agreed on a "basic
roadmap" to resolve a range of disputes, including Kashmir.
Foreign secretaries are to meet
in May or June to launch a "composite dialogue" and will discuss both Kashmir
and measures to reduce the risk of nuclear and conventional war.
Officials from other ministries
will meet in July to tackle a range of issues, including economic links.
Foreign ministers will then meet in August to review overall progress.
"It is very important to Pakistan
to show some results to the domestic audience, to show some progress,"
said Ershad Mahmud of the Institute of Policy Studies.
"It would be difficult for him to
continue a fruitless process for a long time," he said, adding that popular
support for the talks was fragile.
"There is enthusiasm among Pakistanis
but it is superficial, it's not deep rooted. It will be short-lived unless
we get some concrete gesture on Kashmir," he said.
Gestures India could make might
include releasing prisoners or reducing forces in Kashmir, he said.
Musharraf told Reuters in December
he was prepared to set aside Pakistan's decades-old demand for the UN-backed
vote and meet India halfway in a bid for peace.
***************
Why the K-word?
** US pressure to deliver Al Qaeda
gives him excuse to seek forward movement on Kashmir
** Special ally - MNNA - status,
lifting of sanctions have emboldened him to harp on Kashmir once a month
** Or perhaps he's just lacking
in temperament; at the India Today conclave he spoke of "going back to
square one"
