Author: PTI
Publication: Rediff.com
Date: February 6, 2008
URL: http://us.rediff.com/news/2008/feb/06mush.htm
Former Pakistani Generals, including ex-army
chief Mirza Aslam Beg, have criticised President Pervez Musharraf's handling
of the Kashmir problem and said there could be no long-term friendship with
India unless the issue is resolved.
The former generals, who were speaking at
a seminar organised in Rawalpindi on Tuesday by the Pakistan Ex-Servicemen
Society to mark 'Kashmir Solidarity Day', said the government should do more
to "back" the Kashmiris.
In recent weeks, the Society has twice called
on Musharraf to quit and hand over power to deposed chief justice Iftikhar
M Chaudhry ahead of the February 18 general election.
Musharraf has angrily dismissed the demand.
Beg said that there could be no long-term
friendship with India unless the Kashmir issue is resolved.
Former Inter-Services Intelligence chief Lt Gen (retired) Hamid Gul said nuclear
tests by Pakistan had created a balance of power in the subcontinent but it
had tilted in India's favour with the debacle during the 1999 Kargil conflict.
Ex-Rawalpindi corps commander Lt Gen (retd)
Jamshed Gulzar Kiyani said Pakistan's Kashmir policy had been lost and it
did not have any Kashmir policy over the past 8 years.
The remarks by the generals were in marked
contrast to Musharraf's message on the occasion of Kashmir Solidarity Day
in which he said Pakistan was engaged in a "sincere, sustained and purposeful
dialogue with India" on Kashmir.
Lt Gen (retd) Asad Durrani, another former
ISI chief, said he did not regard Musharraf as the President because he had
lost the title after proclaiming emergency on November 3.
Pakistan Ex-Servicemen Society president Lt
Gen (retired) Faiz Ali Chishti criticised Musharraf for getting himself elected
by what he called a "de facto and rigged" assembly.
