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Saner Pak elements back accord

Muddassir Rizvi in Islamabad

As Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief moves towards closing the Kargil front, he opens another at home that may damage his political standing and lower his popularity graph.

The June 5 meeting between Sharief and US President Bill Clinton in Washington raised hopes of peace in south Asia as Pakistan agreed to take concrete steps to restore the Line of Control according to the 1972 Simla agreement.

However, Sharief's agreement was not welcome back home with many terming it a total sellout on Kashmir and a failure of Pakistan's foreign policy.

''Restoring the sanctity of the Line of Control as the way to defuse the current fighting is an unmistakable affirmation of the position taken by India throughout the two months of Kargil crisis,'' reads an editorial in the country's leading English- language newspaper The News.

Following the Washington declaration, the popular mood in Pakistan has turned hostile towards Sharief, who returned to power in February 1997 with a massive majority in the general elections.

Many believe that Pakistan has military supremacy over India and that this has been compromised by Sharief with his intention to announce a withdrawal of Mujahideen from the Kargil heights.

On the other hand, the Mujahideen groups, who are fighting against the Indian Army across the LoC, have refused to surrender and declared that the war would go on.

''We will not accept any agreement made between Pakistan and the United States on Kargil or Kashmir,'' said Amir Mehmood, leader of a Kashmiri militant group at a media conference in Rawalpindi. ''America is our enemy, we cannot trust an American solution.''

As major Kashmiri militant groups formed an alliance to fight the Indian Army in Kargil, a spokesman for the Hizbul Mujahideen group told the media in Muzafarrabad that ''neither Pakistan nor any other country could compel them to vacate the territory they 'liberated' from Indian occupation.''

However, saner elements and defence analysts are hopeful that Pakistan would be able to influence the Mujahideen to pull out of the Kargil sector.

''Sharief is a shrewd politician and he must have played his cards in Washington. Unless he shows his cards to people and the Mujahideeen, one should not reach conclusions,'' commented Shakil Shaikh, a senior defence analyst.

Shaikh says Pakistan has the option of cutting off supplies to the Mujahideen. ''I believe Pakistan enjoys influence over the Mujahideen and will be able to convince them to withdraw in the larger interest of peace and stability in the region and also a step towards a long-term and permanent resolution of the Kashmir dispute.''

Retired deputy army chief K M Arif was also cautious in his comments and said, ''Let the prime minister come back and disclose what he has done, but ostensibly they have agreed on the modalities of withdrawal.''

Sharief, who has not made any public comment after his meeting with Clinton, has gone on a religious trip to Saudi Arabia, where he is likely to meet the Saudi leadership in order to gain broader support for his peace initiatives.

As Sharief continues his diplomacy, Army Chief General Pervez Musharraf threw his weight behind the Pak PM's Washington sojourn saying it was finalised after 'hectic consultations' with the military.

''There is complete understanding between the government and the army about Mr Sharief's Washington mission,'' he said in Islamabad, dispelling the impression that the military and the government had developed serious differences over the Kargil strategy.

Standing alongside the Mujahideen are the country's pro-Islamic parties, which are trying to use the situation to turn tables on Sharief.

The powerful Jamaat-i-Islami, which observed July 6 as a black day to protest against the Washington declaration, said that it would form a larger opposition alliance to resist what they call ''a total surrender and complete sellout of Kashmir which is tantamount to high treason''.

The Islamic parties are believed to have the full support of some powerful, retired army generals, who are bent upon fanning the war.

''Pakistan has accepted what India wanted us to accept and our prime minister has responded, not to the will of nation but the will of President Clinton and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee,'' commented General (retired) Hamid Gul, who once headed the army's Inter-Services Intelligence.

General (retired) Aslam Beg, who took over as army chief after General Zia-ul-Haq's plane crashed in 1988, was also hostile in his comments and charged Sharief with compromising the blood and sacrifices of Mujahideen.

Saner politicians and parliamentarians are demanding more insight into the Sharief-Clinton meeting before taking a peace initiative, only to gain political mileage. ''The prime minister has compromised the Kashmir cause -- it's a total sell out,'' commented Altaf Hussain, the self-exiled leader of the ethnic Muttahida Quami Movement.

Veteran politician Nawabzada Nasullah Khan, the man behind all opposition alliances, swiftly moved to call an all-party conference to finalise a strategy against the government. ''We have to see what consequences the country will have to bear as a result of the withdrawal,'' he told a local news agency.

With the heat on, the government is assuring politicians, parliamentarians and people that details of the Sharief-Clinton meeting will soon be made public. ''Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz will brief parliament on the Washington meeting upon his return from the US,'' said a government spokesman.

On the other hand, there are voices of support from civil society organisations, despite their differences with Sharief on many issues including the recent crackdown on non-government organisations.

''We are for peace ... We have been advocating all along that peace is the only way to prosperity,'' commented an Islamabad- based NGO worker Fatima Aslam.

''The main reason for the public outcry is that the government reciprocated India's nuclear tests last year and now the people hope that it will establish the country's military supremacy over India,'' she said.

But the question is can the two countries afford to fight a war? ''More important is peace and tranquility in the region,'' commented another Islamabad-based activist.

UNI

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