About three years after the Kargil conflict, the Pakistan Government appears to have shed its inhibitions in conceding the role of the Pakistan Army. This was evident at a huge presidential referendum rally addressed by the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, in Peshawar, capital of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), on Tuesday.
Local media reports said that banners and posters hailing Gen. Musharraf as the `Hero of Kargil' were prominently displayed at the rally. As the rally began, the State television compere, Jamshed Ali Khan, who acted as the master of ceremonies, described Gen. Musharraf as the "hero of Kargil" while inviting him to address the gathering.
"As the district governments are now part of the officialdom, the decision to declare Musharraf as the Kargil hero must have received official approval. It is, therefore, a change in the Government policy because Pakistan until now has been contending that Kashmir mujahideen had launched the military operation in Kargil,'' the Executive Editor of The News, Rahmutullah Ysufzai, said in a commentary on the Peshawar rally.
Gen. Musharraf made use of the Peshawar rally to hit out at the religio-political parties in the country and accused them of misleading the youth in the name of Islam.
A majority of the religious parties have turned against the Musharraf regime since Pakistan joined the U.S.-led coalition against terrorism and launched a war against the Taliban regime in October last.
"Both the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Jamiatul Ulema-e-Islam had opposed the creation of Pakistan... Earlier they opposed the Government's realistic approach against extremism and terrorism, and now they are opposing the referendum, which is aimed at making the country stable and prosperous," he told the gathering.
Gen. Musharraf also castigated the banned Tehrik Nifaz Shariah-e-Muhammadi, led by the jailed Soofi Mohammad, for "instigating" hundreds of men from the region to cross over to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban.
He said such forces were responsible for sending the innocent and emotionally-surcharged Pakistanis to Afghanistan, where scores of them died and hundreds ended up in prisons of the anti-Taliban forces.
Vowing to bring them back, Gen.
Musharraf said, "I have talked to Hamid Karzai during my visit to Afghanistan,
and I will bring the arrested Pakistanis back to the country in a few days.
I believe they have been misled by some elements and sent to fight in Afghanistan.
In fact, these Pakistanis are innocent."